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A Discussion On Homeschooling, This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, Randy Yohe sat down with public school teacher Del. Jeff Stephens, R-Marshall, and Sen. Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, Chair of the Senate School Choice Committee, for a discussion on homeschooling.

On this West Virginia Morning, about 20,000 West Virginia children are homeschooled, with the numbers growing every day. Some in state education and the West Virginia Legislature help champion school choice, while others worry about the quality of the education and the safety of homeschooled children.

For The Legislature Today, Randy Yohe sat down with public school teacher Del. Jeff Stephens, R-Marshall, and Sen. Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, Chair of the Senate School Choice Committee, for a discussion.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.

Eric Douglas is our news director and producer.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

Attorney General Publishes Opinion On Hope Scholarship Dual Enrollment

State officials continue to clarify the Hope Scholarship for families and school authorities.

Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said county boards of education or public schools cannot lawfully prohibit a student from participating in a public school program because of the student’s simultaneous engagement in nonpublic education.

The Hope Scholarship requires applicants to be enrolled full-time and attending a public school program in the state for at least 45 calendar days.

In an opinion released last week, Morrisey affirms the practice of “dual enrollment”: enrolling a student in both a public and nonpublic program, only to disenroll the student from the public educational program once Hope Scholarship funds have been secured.

The opinion uses the example of a student attending an in-person private school during the day while attending a virtual public school in the evening.

“In the Hope Scholarship Act, the [West Virginia] Legislature made the express choice to allow students to depart public schools with state funding in hand so long as they are enrolled in public schools for 45 continuous days,” Morrisey said in the opinion. “The Legislature placed no further conditions on this 45-day requirement.”

The opinion also said schools cannot bar public school students from engaging with nonpublic education.

“Altogether, county boards of education or public schools may not lawfully prohibit students from engaging in ‘dual enrollment’ or deny students the ability to participate in public-school programs based on those students’ simultaneous engagement in private education outside public school programs,” the opinion concludes.

State Treasurer Riley Moore, who also serves as the chairman of the West Virginia Hope Scholarship Board, requested the opinion and issued his own clarification of Hope Scholarship use rules in October.

W.Va. Supreme Court Issues Opinion In Scholarship Ruling

West Virginia’s Supreme Court released a full opinion Thursday in an order it issued last month that allowed a non-public school scholarship program to continue.

The five-member court on Oct. 6 reversed a lower court’s ruling that had blocked the Hope Scholarship Program. The program was supposed to start this school year and is one of the most far-reaching school choice programs in the country. It incentivizes West Virginia families to pull their children out of K-12 public schools by offering them state-funded scholarships.

A Charleston-area judge in July ruled the program violated the state’s constitutional mandate to provide “a thorough and efficient system of free schools.”

Writing for the majority, Justice Tim Armstead said in a 49-page opinion that the state Constitution “does not prohibit the Legislature from enacting the Hope Scholarship Act in addition to providing for a thorough and efficient system of free schools.”

“The Constitution allows the Legislature to do both of these things,” Armstead said. “Therefore, we find that the circuit court abused its discretion by permanently enjoining the State from implementing the Hope Scholarship Act.”

The higher court’s decision was not unanimous. In a dissenting opinion, Chief Justice John Hutchison argued that the state Constitution provides “that the Legislature’s obligation to provide a through and efficient education is limited to doing so only by a system of free schools, not through subsidizing private educational systems.

“As such, the Hope Scholarship Act and its subsidization of private education is prohibited by the West Virginia Constitution. I would, therefore, have affirmed the circuit court,” he wrote.

Passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature last year, the law that created the Hope Scholarship Program allows families to apply for state funding to support private school tuition, homeschooling fees and a wide range of other expenses.

More than 3,000 students were approved to receive around $4,300 each during the program’s inaugural cycle, according to the West Virginia State Treasurer’s Office. The first payments were supposed to go out in August but were put on hold while the lower court’s block on the program was in place.

Families can’t receive the money if their children were already homeschooled or attending private school. To qualify, students have to have been enrolled in a West Virginia public school last year or had to be set to begin kindergarten this school year.

In January, three parents of special education students sued the state, saying the scholarship program takes money away from already underfunded public schools. The lawsuit was supported by the West Virginia Board of Education. One family later withdrew from the case.

Report: W.Va. Ranks 49th In Country For Teacher Salaries

The largest teacher union in the nation released its annual report Tuesday on educator pay. The data ranks West Virginia as 49th in the country.

The National Education Association’s 2022 review of teacher salaries in the United States shows that the average teacher salary in West Virginia is about $50,200 a year. Nationally, the average salary is about $65,200.

The report details that the “minimum living wage” for West Virginia educators is around $50,400 – about a $200 difference from the average annual salary.

Minimum living wage is defined by NEA as “income needed for a family of one adult and one child to have a modest but adequate standard of living in the most affordable metro area.” This data is based on 2020 dollars and was provided by the Economic Policy Institute.

For new teachers in West Virginia, the average starting salary is $37,900, which puts West Virginia 40th in the nation, according to the data.

In contrast, the NEA’s data ranks West Virginia 25th in the nation for student spending. West Virginia spends about $13,000 per year, per student.

From a higher education standpoint, NEA’s data show that West Virginia ranks 48th in the nation for faculty salaries, which averages about $75,500 a year in the state. Nationally, it’s closer to $91,900.

The report details the average salary for public school teachers nationally increased last year by nearly 2 percent.

However, when adjusted for inflation, salaries have declined by almost 4 percent over the past decade.

A Breakdown In COVID-19 Relief Funding For W.Va. Schools

When Congress passed the CARES Act earlier this summer to help Americans navigate the toll from the coronavirus pandemic, West Virginia received more than $1 billion.

Of that figure, $86.6 million was put into a fund called the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSERF). That fund was spent two ways: $78 million was dispersed to all 55 county school districts, divvied up based on the number of low-income students in each district. And $8.6 million was withheld by the West Virginia Department of Education to be used for emergencies related to COVID-19.

In the weeks leading up to schools reopening, the West Virginia chapter of the American Federation of Teachers and other groups have criticized state officials’ handling of school reopening and voiced concerns that schools across the state have not received enough personal protective equipment (PPE) and other resources to combat the virus.

This week, the West Virginia Board of Education held its first meeting since schools in the state reopened for the 2020-2021 school year. Fred Albert, president of the AFT-WV, again addressed these concerns.

“I know it’s not been easy,” Albert said. “We’re still getting calls every day from concerned parents and concerned teachers, concerned service personnel that they don’t feel quite equipped.”

Albert brought up technology and connectivity issues, teacher vacancies and concerns about the safety of some of the cleaning products being used at schools.

Melanie Perkey, executive director of the Office of Federal Programs under the WVDE, addressed some of his concerns, sharing with board members a breakdown about some additional re-entry dollars for West Virginia’s school districts.

The WVDE took the withheld $8.6 million from the CARES Act and combined it with state funds from school-related activities that were canceled due to the coronavirus – totaling an additional $12.5 million that was awarded to 48 county school districts across the state.

“We conducted a competitive grant process where counties could apply for special projects that they wanted to do related to their COVID-19 response,” Perkey told board members. “And they had to apply in three areas of priority.”

Those areas included social and emotional needs, technology, and achievement gaps.

“More than half of the funding was spent on technology for remote learning,” Perkey said, speaking to the original ESSERF appropriation. “[Schools] purchased devices. They purchased software for learning management systems, and that type of thing. [The funding] could be used for sanitation, cleaning, training of staff, food preparation.”

Now, with the additional $12.5 million, Perkey said they are seeing the majority of counties use this funding on technology needs again.

The seven counties that did not receive additional funding through the competitive grant either did not apply for it or applied but still had funding available from a previous fiscal year, she said.

“We had three counties [Gilmer, Lincoln and Roane counties] that applied but did not receive funding,” Perkey said. “With the extension that the CARES Act allowed on fiscal year 2019 money, it doesn’t expire in September, they have another year.”

She explained that those three counties still had unused funds available from fiscal year 2019 and 2020 because of the federal extension, so her staff didn’t think those counties needed the extra money from the competitive grant.

Perkey said school districts will have until 2022 to use all funds.

In total, school districts in West Virginia are receiving more than $90 million in COVID-19 relief from both the CARES Act and from the WVDE’s competitive grant combined.

The WVDE’s website features a graph that breaks down what percentage of the ESSERF funds were used for things like technology or sanitation products as well as the amount of funding each county received.

The department’s website also features a document breaking down how much and which counties received funding from the competitive grant allocation.

Also, in this board meeting, members approved a waiver request from counties seeking to fill teacher vacancies with substitute teachers in critical areas of need.

Those counties include Boone, Hampshire, Lincoln, Logan, Monongalia, Morgan, Nicholas, Pocahontas, Ritchie, Wetzel, and Wyoming County Schools, and the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and the Blind.

W.Va. Legislature Considers Bible-Themed Electives In Public Schools

West Virginia public high schools could soon offer their students elective courses on the Bible.

The West Virginia House of Delegates voted 73 to 26 in favor of House Bill 4780 Tuesday afternoon, which would allow county boards of education four options to offer students as an elective social studies course. The courses could involve Hebrew scriptures, the Bible’s New Testament, a combination of the two, or the Bible’s Old Testament.

State senators are slated to vote in favor of Senate Bill 38 on Wednesday, a similar bill that lawmakers amended to instead allow schools to offer courses featuring multiple “sacred texts or comparative world religions.”

According to the Legislature’s website as of Tuesday afternoon, the Senate still will be allowed to amend the bill before passing it on Wednesday.

Del. Joe Ellington, R-Mercer, told other House delegates on Monday language differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill likely will lead to a conference committee to resolve the differences after bills cross chambers.

An effort by Dels. Mike Pushkin from Kanawha County and John Doyle from Jefferson County, both Democrats, to amend the bill in a similar way to the Senate, failed on Monday.

‘An Appropriate Way’ To Look At The Bible In Public Schools?

According to the House Bill, the purpose of this bill is to “teach students knowledge of biblical content, characters, poetry, and narratives that are prerequisites to understanding the development of American society and culture, including literature, art, music, mores, oratory, and public policy.”

Del. T. Kevan Bartlett, R-Kanawha, is the bill’s lead sponsor in the House.

“The bill provides a statement … that the bible is not unwelcome here,” Bartlett told delegates on Tuesday. “The bible is not inappropriate here. There is an appropriate way, in a public school setting, to look at the bible in an academic way.”

Both versions of the bill say a county school district isn’t allowed to require that a student take these courses.

In his explanation of the bill to the full House of Delegates on Tuesday, Ellington said county boards that choose to create these electives will have to submit their coursework plan to the state Department of Education for approval.

Messaging Concerns

“It is a clear violation of the West Virginia Constitution,” Del. Doyle, D-Jefferson said on the House floor Tuesday, regarding Article 3-15 of the state’s constitution, which guarantees religious freedom.

“If we pass this bill, we will be saying to the rest of the country … the message that will be heard is only Christians are welcome in West Virginia,” Doyle went on. “We must not send that message.”

Several Republican proponents for the bill and Del. Marshall Wilson, I-Berkeley, insisted if done right, these courses could comply with state and federal law.

“It makes me uncomfortable, and I wanted to just speak from my heart,” said Del. Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia. Hansen told delegates on Tuesday he’s Jewish, a religious minority in the state Legislature.

Hansen referred to testimony some lawmakers heard Monday morning during a public hearing for House Bill 4780, from Malcolm Cohen, a third grader at Piedmont Elementary School in Charleston.

“My little brother and I are the only Jewish kids in our school,” Cohen said Monday. “One day last year at my after-school program, the teachers taught us about Jesus and made us pledge allegiance to the Bible. It made me feel very worried and confused. I felt like I was doing something wrong.”

According to Cohen’s testimony, the school separated him and his brother from the rest of the group at the after-school program, after Cohen’s mother spoke with the school. Cohen said he felt excluded.

“I believe this has an impact on Jewish kids and kids of other faiths,” Hansen said Tuesday. “I understand this bill is not written to force anyone to pledge allegiance to the Bible, but these things happen, and kids like Malcolm are made to feel like they don’t belong.”

Challenging One’s Beliefs

Pushkin questioned on Tuesday how possible it really is to separate theology from academia in these proposed courses. Pushkin also is Jewish.

While Bartlett said he believed it was possible depending on a teacher’s way of handling the bill, Del. Brandon Steele, R-Raleigh, agreed with Pushkin that theology will be a significant part of these classes. But, to Steele, that only makes the bill more educational.

“One of the reasons that I would urge support for the bill today is because of the tenacity displayed by both of them,” Steele said of Pushkin and Bartlett, after a debate between the two delegates regarding the bill on Tuesday.

“I think that [Del. Pushkin] is well reasoned in his opinion. He knows his facts and he knows why he believes the way he believes,” Steele said. “I think one of the problems we’re experiencing in our society today is we’re raising a generation of children that cannot put on that same display. Because they’re never challenged about their beliefs. … But learning, and adapting and being able to defend your position, as well as hear the position of another, without anger or malice coming up, is a central issue in growing into a mature adult.”

Del. Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, told delegates Steele was “1000 percent right” Tuesday afternoon, with one caveat.

“I find it very odd that we missed an opportunity to include other texts in this teaching of history,” Hornbuckle said. “Because without those other texts, we’re actually denying our kids, for that same reason, to look at other things, to examine everything else, to be able to learn and see what they think and be able to enrich themselves.”

Earlier this session, the House also passed a “Religious Liberties in Schools Act” on to the Senate for consideration. As of Tuesday evening, the bill was waiting in the Senate Education Committee for consideration, with a second reference to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Emily Allen is a Report for America corps member.