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West Virginia Joining 42 Other States That Offer Charter Schools

West Virginia is now the 42nd state to introduce public charter schools as an educational choice for parents and students. A new state law allows for the creation of 10 charter schools over the next three years. That can include two virtual charter schools. A state authorizing board is reviewing seven applications that are required to follow the same rules and regulations that public schools do, but charters can offer more flexibility to adapt and adjust learning approaches.

In some states like Colorado, Michigan, North Carolina and California more than 10 percent of students now attend charter schools. The educational reform movement got its start 30 years ago in Minnesota and in the past three decades, charters have created an us-and-them divide.

Despite their popularity and expansion, some people oppose charter schools. They say charters drain students and resources from traditional public schools. When students attend a charter program, state funding moves with them. We’ll hear from students, parents, teachers and leaders about West Virginia’s decision to bring in charters — and a lawsuit that claims the plan is unconstitutional.

For this episode, Us & Them host Trey Kay speaks with West Virginia State Senator Patricia Rucker, who championed the landmark legislation to permit charter schools in the Mountain State. Kay also checks in with people involved in the charter debate on the national level. He speaks with Joe Nathan, who helped write the nation’s first charter public school law and Diane Ravitch, a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education in President George H. W. Bush’s Administration. Ravitch was once a supporter of charters, but is now one of the nation’s most outspoken opponents.

This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, the CRC Foundation and the West Virginia Humanities Council.

Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond. You also can listen to Us & Them on WVPB Radio — tune in tonight, Oct. 28, at 8 p.m., or listen to the encore presentation on Saturday, Oct. 28, at 3 p.m.

Senate Education Chair Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, speaks during a Senate floor session on March 25, 2021. Rucker was a champion of West Virginia’s new charter school law.

Diane Ravitch is a former assistant secretary of education. She is one of the leading opponents of charter schools nationally.

Since 1970, Joe Nathan has worked with traditional and chartered public schools as a teacher, administrator, parent, PTA president and researcher. Nathan helped write the nation’s first charter school law and Minnesota’s law.

W.Va. Senate Moves Forward On Hope Scholarship, Jumpstart Savings Programs

Two major education bills are nearing the end of their legislative journeys.

Jumpstart Savings Program

The West Virginia Senate on Wednesday unanimously passed HB 2001, which would create the West Virginia Jumpstart Savings Program.

The program would be housed in the Office of the West Virginia State Treasurer and is a tax-free savings plan, similar to SMART529, aimed at people who are pursuing careers in occupations such as welding, electrical work, plumbing and other trades or apprenticeships. Individuals interested in opening an account will be required to deposit at least $25 to start one.

“This bill simply starts a program that allows individuals and families to save money for future costs, like tools, equipment and business startup expenses in the state of West Virginia,” said Senate Education Chair Sen. Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, during Wednesday’s floor session. “I support and urge adoption.”

Since the Senate adopted a couple amendments to the bill, the House must first concur with the changes before the bill will be sent to Gov. Jim Justice for his signature.

Hope Scholarship Program

The Senate Education Committee passed the much-watched Hope Scholarship bill Tuesday evening after more than two hours of questions, discussion and debate.

HB 2013 would create the Hope Scholarship Program, which establishes publicly funded education savings accounts for public school students interested in switching to private or homeschool.

No amendments were adopted during committee, although Sen. Mike Romano, D-Harrison, attempted to place caps on eligibility based on income with exceptions for families who have children with learning or physical disabilities. He also attempted to add a non-discrimination section. All were rejected.

“I’m shocked that we could not pass [a non-discrimination provision] this year by a majority vote,” Romano said, referencing previous attempts to pass ESA legislation. “We’re going to continue to suck money out of the public school education till it falls flat on its face… Whether it be charter schools, or now ESAs, we will continue to drain the public education system.”

Sen. Mike Romano, D-Harrison, asks question of counsel regarding HB 2013 during a Senate Education Committee meeting on March 9, 2021.

The legislature approved a bill last week that would permit the creation of up to 10 brick-and-mortar public charter schools by 2023, as well as virtual charter options statewide and locally. It is awaiting a signature from the governor.

The Hope Scholarship Program would give students a voucher equal to about $4,600 a year, but that could fluctuate depending on the annual state School Aid Formula. The vouchers could be used for things like tuition at a private school, for tutoring, for standardized exams, or for afterschool programs.

“I do support our public education system getting more funds, having smaller class sizes, having the ability to customize and innovate,” Rucker said in committee. “[That’s] just one of the reasons just a few days ago we supported charter school legislation out of this body. I want every option available so that there is no child that falls through the cracks that doesn’t get what they need.”

Initial rollout of the Hope Scholarship Program is expected to cost the state about $23 million in its first year, according to a fiscal note provided by the West Virginia Department of Education.

The bill also allows that by 2026, all private and homeschooled students in the state may apply for a voucher regardless of whether they ever attended public school.

The WVDE estimates this expansion of the program could cost the state an additional $100 million a year beginning in the 2027-2028 school year if all current homeschool and private school students received the education vouchers.

HB 2013 now heads to the Senate Finance Committee for further consideration.

Eight W.Va. Counties Will Be Remote, Virtual School This Week

The West Virginia Department of Education announced that eight counties will be remote-learning only for the week of Sept. 13. State officials rolled out updated data Saturday, Sept. 12 at 5 p.m.

Monongalia, Boone, Fayette, Kanawha, Logan, Mingo, Monroe and Putnam counties will not be open for in-person instruction this week.

The COVID-19 Data Review Panel has determined that Calhoun County will move from orange to yellow on the WVDE School Alert System Map. Calhoun County has had 13 cases which are linked and contained over the previous 14 days with no further evidence of community spread, according to the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.

Red (Substantial Community Transmission): Remote-only learning mode. No extracurricular competitions or practices are permitted. Staff may report to their schools, as determined by the county. Essential support services, including special education and meals, will continue. Counties in red include: Monongalia.

Orange (Heightened Community Transmission): Remote-only learning mode. Extracurricular practices may occur, however, competitions may not. Staff may report to their schools, as determined by the county. Essential support services, including special education and meals, will continue. Counties in orange include: Boone, Fayette, Kanawha, Logan, Mingo, Monroe and Putnam.

Yellow (Increased Community Transmission): School may be held for in-person instruction. Extracurricular practices and competitions may occur. Health and safety precautions include, at a minimum, face coverings at all times for grades six and above. Please refer to your county for specific face covering requirements. Counties in yellow include: Berkeley, Brooke, Cabell, Calhoun, Clay, Doddridge, Grant, Greenbrier, Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson, Lincoln, McDowell, Mercer, Ohio, Pocahontas, Raleigh, Roane, Summers, Taylor, Tucker, Upshur, and Wayne.

Green (Minimal Community Transmission): School may be held for in-person instruction. Extracurricular practices and competitions may occur. Health and safety precautions include, at a minimum, face coverings in grades three and above when students are outside of core groups and in congregant settings and on school buses. Please refer to your county for specific face covering requirements. Counties in green include: Barbour, Braxton, Gilmer, Hardy, Hampshire, Lewis, Marion, Marshall, Mason, Mineral, Morgan, Nicholas, Pendleton, Pleasants, Preston, Randolph, Ritchie, Tyler, Webster, Wetzel, Wood, Wirt and Wyoming.

All schools, both public and private, are expected to adhere to the WVDE’s re-entry map to guide in-person instruction and extracurricular activities.

Updates to the map will be announced each Saturday at 5 p.m. and will be in effect until the following Saturday at the same time, according to the WVDE. The only exception would be if a county turns red during the week.

If this happens, the change would be made immediately to the map, according to the WVDE, and all in-person instruction and extracurricular and athletic activities would be suspended.

As of Saturday morning, the West Virginia DHHR reports 12,521 total cases of the virus and 265 deaths. 3,031 cases are considered active.

Retiring Jefferson County Principal Shares Wisdom, Advice After Decades On The Job

Debra Corbett always loved education. Coming from a family of educators, it was something she said she always wanted to do. Her mother, aunts and uncles were all teachers.

“I heard a lot about, when the family got together, about school, about kids,” Corbett said. “It made me want to be in education … to somehow support parents and make a difference in student lives.”

Corbett retired this year after 31 years as principal of Ranson Elementary School in Ranson, Jefferson County. Prior to that, she was an elementary school teacher. She said her biggest takeaways in her career are the importance of compassion, to be gentle, to show support to teachers and students and help them see they can succeed.

As Corbett leaves her long career in education, teachers, parents, staff and students across West Virginia begin a new school year in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic.

Nine West Virginia counties started the new school year off virtually this week. The other 46 counties are offering in-person, virtual and hybrid schooling for, at least, the first week of school. That could change next weekend.

Every Saturday night, state officials will update a color-coded map found on the West Virginia Department of Education’s website. The map indicates what schooling options will exist in each county week-by-week. This is how West Virginia is tackling school this year in the face of the coronavirus – taking it one week at a time.

Corbett’s advice to teachers during this turbulent time is to offer comfort to students and be kind to themselves.

“Just take a deep breath,” she said. “We can’t get everything accomplished in one day. It’s just going to take some time to go through this pandemic time and do the best that we can.”

But another global event has rattled the world this year – a reckoning in racial justice in the United States. People across the country and the world have taken to the streets to protest the treatment of Black people by police. Marches and rallies have been held in recent months demanding change following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police.

Corbett, who is Black, completed kindergarten through sixth grade when schools were racially segregated.

Ranson Elementary School, Corbett said, is a culturally diverse school with a diverse demographic of students. She said many of her students are Black or English Language Learners (ELL). She said she has tried hard to create a safe environment for students at school.

“Well, being a Black administrator, it has just opened up my eyes even more,” she said. “With everything going on at this time, I do think of the kids and what they’re seeing on TV, and even what they’re hearing and what they’re experiencing in their family and in their homes, too … [I want] to make sure that they can come to [school] and that they know that they’re in a safe environment, and that they know that someone is there to just listen to them.”

She said it’s more important than ever for teachers to use education to help bridge the gap created by systemic racism.

“Systemic racism – those inherited biases and prejudices of different policies and practices, you know, that have just been handed down, generation to generation – it just doesn’t go away overnight,” she said. “That’s why it’s so important for the teachers to expose the students [to] all types of cultures in their lessons and their reading and in class. And I think that’s one way that we can come together.”

Debra Corbett helps students get their breakfast during a summer program in July 2018 called Rising Rockets at Ranson Elementary School.

Corbett grew up in Jefferson County and attended Jefferson County Schools, graduating with the last class from Charles Town High School in 1972. Corbett earned her bachelor’s degree from Fairmont State University and began her teaching career at South Jefferson Elementary School in 1976 before teaching overseas for several years.

Corbett earned her master’s degree from the University of Toledo before returning to West Virginia and teaching at Wright Denny Intermediate School. In 1989, Corbett left Wright Denny and was named principal of Ranson Elementary School.

“This experience has truly made me a better person,” she said. “And I will miss it after 39 years with Jefferson County Schools.”

Nine W.Va. Counties Will Go Virtual-Only In First Week Of School

The West Virginia Department of Education announced Saturday that nine counties will begin with only remote learning for the week of Sept. 6 through 12. State officials rolled out updated data Saturday at 9 p.m.

Monongalia, Fayette, Kanawha, Logan, Mercer, Mingo, Monroe, Putnam and Wayne counties will not initially open for in-person instruction.

Monongalia is the only county in West Virginia as of Saturday night that is marked red on the state’s color-coded map that gauges whether schools are ready for in-class teaching, sports and other activities. Previously, Monroe County was also labeled red but was moved to orange on Saturday.

A level of red indicates “substantial community transmission.”

As of the Saturday update, orange level counties — which indicates “heightened community transmission — include Fayette, Kanawha, Logan, Mercer, Mingo, Monroe, Putnam and Wayne.

The remaining counties in the state fall into the yellow and green levels, which allows for in-person instruction to begin. Yellow counties indicate “increased community transmission,” while green translates to minimal spread of the virus.

The color-coded threat levels are based on an average of new daily cases — with counties of 16,000 or more on a 14-day rolling average. Those with populations of less than 16,000 are measured on a 7-day rolling average.

State officials announced last week they would create a data review panel to evaluate county coronavirus case data to determine its accuracy and reliability.

“Upon further review of the data by the Panel, it was determined that Monroe County should be moved to orange status,” said West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources Cabinet Secretary Bill Crouch on Saturday. “This is because the county’s daily number of cases and the average seven-day incidence have declined sufficiently to meet the criteria for orange. From this analysis, the Panel concluded the level of COVID-19 transmission in Monroe County was improving.”

Monroe and the other counties in orange means school is remote only, but extracurriculars can still resume, however athletic competitions may not.

Updates to the map will be announced each Saturday at 9 p.m. and will be in effect until the following Saturday at the same time, according to the state Department of Education. The only exception would be if a county turns red during the week.

All schools, both public and private, are expected to adhere to the education department’s re-entry map to guide in-person instruction and extracurricular activities.

“We’re about ready to go back to school,” said Gov. Jim Justice in a virtual press conference Friday. “Unfortunately we’re going to have some that we just can’t turn loose right yet, which is in the best interest of the school.”

Justice announced Friday the state will devote an additional $50 million in federal pandemic relief funds for personal protective equipment and testing capacity at schools.

The 2020-2021 school year in West Virginia is set to start on Tuesday, Sept. 8.

As of Saturday morning, the state Department of Health and Human Resources reports 11,289 total cases of the virus and 243 deaths. 2,530 cases are considered active.

Union Leaders Allege Schools Not Safe To Reopen As State Defends Response

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ben Salango and union leaders in West Virginia education say Gov. Jim Justice and state officials are not doing enough for a safe reopening of schools next week.

The West Virginia chapter of the American Federation of Teachers and gubernatorial candidate Salango held a press conference Wednesday in Charleston citing concerns that several schools across the state are not yet safe enough to open next week.

Fred Albert, president of AFT-West Virginia, said over a Facebook Live broadcast that the greatest concern is aging school buildings in West Virginia that do not have proper ventilation, which Albert said is “vital to mitigating the virus.”

“Our teachers and service personnel miss their students,” Albert said. “We want to return to teaching and to learning, but it must be safe. Our elected leaders have only a few days left to put the proper safety measures and resources in place.”

Albert argued that many teachers have reached out to him and AFT-West Virginia claiming they still do not have personal protective equipment available.

In a https://youtu.be/BELroCe8hY8″>virtual press briefing Wednesday with Justice and other state leaders, the governor said there is money available through the CARES Act for any resources still needed at West Virginia’s more than 600 public schools.

West Virginia Superintendent of Schools Clayton Burch echoed the governor and said he and his staff are “triple checking” to make sure schools have what they need. He said he communicates frequently with county superintendents.

“The governor’s assured us that at no point in time should I be shy coming to him to ask for any dollars that I need,” Burch said in the press briefing. “I’ve got Gen. Hoyer, Secretary Crouch completely backing us up. We’ve got over 2 million face coverings stockpiled, ready to be used.”

Burch did not directly mention the AFT press conference that occurred Wednesday morning, but he did mention Albert and said he feels frustrated “when we continue to hear folks go on and publicly continue to say that our teachers and our schools aren’t ready, and that happened [Wednesday].”

“My door has been open, since day one, March 13, I’ve never closed my door,” Burch said. “My door has been open to anybody who wants to discuss return to school, and I’ve appreciated all the voices who have assisted. Whether you’re a parent advocacy group, whether you are folks representing special needs, whether you’re folks representing foster children, or whether you’re one of our teachers’ unions, or service personnel, my door has been continuously open.”

Still, Albert argued during the AFT press conference for more leadership from the governor with clear, consistent procedures on “how staff, parents and students will be notified of potential cases or exposure in schools.”

Salango said in the Facebook Live broadcast there should be more coronavirus testing and more nurses staffed at schools. Salango also claimed that with $6 million, every school in the state could be equipped with temperature scanners.

“We don’t have thermal scanners, temperature scanners, hands free devices in all of our schools,” Salango argued. “That’s something that’s easy to do, easily installed, easily executed.”

Albert is also asking Justice to allow more time for families to sort out childcare needs should a county change color on the re-entry map. He said being notified on a Saturday night does not give families enough time to prepare.

“If we stay in the orange or move to red by Saturday night at 9 p.m., then our parents will be scrambling over the weekend to provide care for their child.”

Albert said families should at least be notified by Fridays at 5 p.m.

West Virginia’s school re-entry is guided by metrics developed by the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources. It’s based on a four-color system – green, yellow, orange and red. Each county is assigned a color based on the prevalence of COVID-19 within their borders, according to the West Virginia Department of Education.

Both the governor and Burch say school re-opening remains a “fluid” situation, and they are prepared to respond to any scenario.

Schools in West Virginia are set to begin Sept. 8.