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Resources For Children And Looking At The Legislature, This West Virginia Week

On this West Virginia Week, we began with Child Advocacy Day at the Capitol where lawmakers learned about resources available to the state’s children. Also, we hear from a new survey that shows teachers are increasingly likely to leave the profession in West Virginia. And, we listen to legislative leaders discuss their thoughts on the 2024 West Virginia Legislative session.

On this West Virginia Week, we began with Child Advocacy Day at the Capitol where lawmakers learned about resources available to the state’s children. Also, we hear from a new survey that shows teachers are increasingly likely to leave the profession in West Virginia. And, we listen to legislative leaders discuss their thoughts on the 2024 West Virginia Legislative session.

Emily Rice is our host this week. Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert.

West Virginia Week is a web-only podcast that explores the week’s biggest news in the Mountain State. It’s produced with help from Bill Lynch, Briana Heaney, Chris Schulz, Curtis Tate, Emily Rice, Eric Douglas, Jack Walker, Liz McCormick, and Randy Yohe.

Learn more about West Virginia Week.

Education Committees In Both Chambers Address Financial Issues

Now more than a week into the session, the Education committees of both chambers are addressing financial issues in the state’s schools.

The West Virginia Legislature is more than a week into the session and bills have started to move through their respective committees. The Education committees of both chambers are addressing financial issues in the state’s schools.

Many of these bills taken up and passed this week may seem familiar. That’s because most of them also passed both Education committees last year, only to founder in House and Senate Finance.

The House Education Committee took up issues of educator pay at their meeting Wednesday. House Bill 4202 would raise salaries for school service personnel by $670 per month.

House Bill 4767 raises the salaries of new teachers with no experience to $44,000. A similar bill, Senate Bill 204, passed out of the Senate Education Committee last year but did not make it out of Finance.

House Education Committee Chair Del. Joe Ellington, R-Mercer, said the two bills would make positions in West Virginia more competitive with neighboring states.

“Of note, that also brings up to the 50th percentile of our surrounding states,” he said.

Gov. Jim Justice already announced plans to raise the pay of all state employees, including teachers and school staff, by 5 percent this year. Legislative leaders have indicated their support of the raise, but union leaders and other advocates say the raise isn’t enough to address rising PEIA premiums, let alone bigger issues of teacher retention.

Related to the teacher shortage, a bill that attempts to define and limit the role of school counselors drew much discussion. House Bill 4769 aims to narrowly define the duties of school counselors, something Del. David Elliott Pritt, R-Fayette, said is necessary.

“I actually had a lunch meeting with a couple counselors that work in the county that I represent, and these counselors have over 300 unanswered counseling referrals because they’re being asked to fill in the role of teacher in positions that no long-term or short-term, day-to-day sub will take,” he said. “And it’s a problem. These are counseling referrals that could be potential suicide risk, abuse from a parent or guardian. They’re unanswered, because they’re being asked to fulfill other duties. This bill is incredibly important. I’m happy to support it. And I’m honestly very glad that we’re really addressing this, this year.“

Pritt works as a social studies teacher at Fayetteville PreK-8.

All five of the bills discussed were recommended to the House for passage.

On the Senate side, the Education Committee Thursday morning took up a bill regarding the Promise PLUS program, Senate Bill 259. First established in 2001, the Promise Scholarship is a merit-based academic award that pays in-state tuition and fees, or $5,000, whichever is less, at any eligible institution in West Virginia.

The Promise PLUS program would act as a supplement for individuals who meet more rigorous standards so that the total of both scholarships is equal to the actual cost of tuition.

Sen. Mike Oliverio, R-Monongalia, voiced his opposition to what he called the bill’s “held hostage” provision, which would require recipients of Promise PLUS funds to pay the state back if they left the state after graduation.

“I think the approach would better be to increase the amount of money that we give to all of the Promise scholarship recipients and continue to not have a “held hostage” provision over them and really live by that concept of, as a state, we should train and educate our next generation,” he said. “And if they leave, so be it, maybe they’ll come back. But if we don’t train and educate them, and they stay, we have a lot of problems.”

Senators also discussed bills to require age-appropriate education on the Holocaust (SB 448), as well as the development of an education program to teach safety while accessing technology (SB 466). All three bills were recommended to the Senate for passage.

Burnout, Dissatisfaction Among Educators In Latest WVEA Survey

West Virginia teachers have become increasingly more likely to leave the profession, according to the latest survey of West Virginia Education Association members.

Dale Lee, president of the WVEA, shared results Tuesday and said the survey was conducted to gauge levels of frustration amongst association members. He said the survey showed low pay and a lack of respect for the profession are leading to higher stress and burnout.

“More than half of our members, 62 percent, reported experiencing higher levels of stress and burnout than in previous years, with 26 percent saying that their level of burnout is at its highest level ever,” Lee said.

The higher levels of burnout and stress are leading to more educators to consider leaving the profession. Lee said while more than half of respondents are confident they will continue working in education, “nearly half of them say that they are much more likely to retire or leave education earlier than planned.” The results were broken down by tenure, and newer educators were more likely to consider leaving.

“We already have a problem with attracting and retaining education employees,” Lee said. “And this poll indicates that without changes, the problem will only get worse without significant action.”

Lee raised concern about the ongoing teacher shortage, citing the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission to say there has been a 14 percent reduction in the number of students entering the education programs, as well as a lack of students seeing education as a career.

“You can see the staffing issues will continue to grow if something isn’t done to address these concerns,” he said.

Other results included a disapproval of public funds being used for private education: 85 percent of WVEA members said taxpayer funding for education should only be used for our public schools. And more than 70 percent of respondents said they were dissatisfied with their working conditions.

“In all instances, the dissatisfaction is overwhelming,” Lee said. “Now keep in mind that the working conditions over educators are the learning conditions of our students.”

Turning to solutions, Lee highlighted two interesting results of the survey. When asked to indicate support for different proposals to address education burnout, such as allowing teachers more input in the classroom decisions by eliminating the bureaucracy, 100 percent of respondents chose “raise salaries” and “increase educator respect”.

According to the National Education Association, West Virginia ranks last among U.S. states in average teacher pay.

“Our pollsters indicate that it’s very rare to have such a consensus on two items in a poll,” Lee said.

Lee says he hopes to present the survey findings to both the Senate and House education committees, and work with them on solutions.

State Board of Education Reviews Teacher Pay, Middle School In Monthly Meeting

Advocates are calling for a pay raise for the state’s teachers, and a middle school in Barbour County gets a state review.

Advocates are calling for a pay raise for the state’s teachers.

Gov. Jim Justice and legislative leaders have already indicated they will pursue a pay raise for teachers and other state employees during the 2024 legislative session to help cover the increased cost of insurance. But at the state Board of Education meeting Wednesday morning, union representatives said the proposal isn’t enough.

Fred Albert, president of the American Federation of Teachers – West Virginia, stressed that low pay is contributing to the state’s teacher shortage, and requires a more aggressive approach.

“AFT supports increasing teacher and support staff funding and asked the West Virginia Legislature to provide appropriate funding for a three-year salary increase package, a $7,000 raise across the board for teachers, service personnel and public employees, and an automatic cost of living increase,” he said.

Albert stated that many educators are leaving the profession, frustrated by working conditions that don’t contribute to their success, leading to chronic staffing shortages.

Dale Lee, president of the West Virginia Education Association, compared the legislative response to the school funding situation to similar staffing issues in corrections and medicine.

“When they had a problem with corrections, they gave the corrections officers a $10,000 raise,” he said. “When there’s a shortage of doctors, particularly in rural areas, what do we do? We increase the reimbursement from PEIA from 35 percent of Medicare to 110 percent of Medicare. It’s time to address the issue with educators too.”

Lee highlighted the flipside of the staffing issue, noting that enrollment in educational programs across the state continues to drop.

David Gladkosky, executive director of West Virginia Professional Educators, also addressed teacher pay in his remarks outlining his organization’s legislative goals. He also touched upon issues of pay for retirees, as well as further legislative corrections to address discipline.

“What we’re hearing from our teachers out in the counties is that they’re not seeing consistent steps taken to address discipline problems, even though this bill (HB2890) from last year did try to do that,” Gladkosky said. “But we’re still, we’re not seeing enough consistency and enough support in dealing with discipline problems. So I do understand that this is going to be looked at again. And so we support that highly.”

Special Circumstances Review

Later in the meeting, the board approved the Special Circumstance Review of Philippi Middle School in Barbour County and recommended corrective actions. The review was initiated in November 2023 by the West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) as a result of student safety concerns and a lack of adequate progress in the school improvement process.

The county superintendent and school principal have been in their current positions since July 2023, and most of the issues precede them. Barbour County Schools Superintendent Eddie Vincent told the board he came into the position knowing there was work to do.

“We’ve asked for help, I actually asked for the special circumstance review to assist us along the way and knowing that this is a process that we owe Barbour County and to our kids,” he said.

Board President Paul Hadesty thanked and complimented Vincent for reaching out.

“It is not our primary objective to be punitive in nature,” he said. “We’re here as a support mechanism, but we can’t support people and help them unless we know there’s a problem.”

The review resulted in 22 areas of non-compliance and five findings. These range from student achievement, well-being and safety to discipline and administrative protocols. The recommendations outlined include the immediate hiring of a certified school counselor; the implementation of a disciplinary matrix and improvements to the school’s Special Education practices.

State Struggles With National Teacher Shortage

Teaching is the career that all other careers are built on, but recently West Virginia has struggled to fill vacancies in classrooms.

Sitting in his office in Morgantown, Monongalia County Superintendent Eddie Campbell reminisces about a problem he used to have: too many applicants.

“We posted an elementary position 10 years ago, it wouldn’t have been unlikely to get 60 applicants for one elementary position.,” he said.

But things have changed. Campbell says now he’s lucky to get a third as many people applying.

“That is even exacerbated when we start talking about these critical positions. Math, high school science, foreign language, special education, we’re talking single digit applicants for these posted positions,” Campbell said. “Many times we’re getting applicants that aren’t qualified by certification, and we might only have one or two applicants for a math position.”

For the last several years, West Virginia has faced a difficult issue. The West Virginia Department of Education estimates there are currently some 1,500 vacancies in certified teacher positions in the state. Campbell says he and other educational leaders have to increasingly rely on long-term substitutes to fill in the gaps.

The issue is not unique to West Virginia. The National Center for Education Statistics reported in early 2022 that 44 percent of public schools nationally had full or part-time teaching vacancies. A variety of issues have contributed to the decline, including pay, added responsibilities and public perception of the teaching profession.

Hans Fogle, public information officer for Jefferson County Schools, said the COVID-19 pandemic amplified and accelerated issues that already existed.

“Over COVID, we saw what was ‘the great retirement’ where anyone who was eligible for retirement did so,” he said. “Part of that is because you had to adapt at a moment’s notice to an entirely new way of teaching, new way of doing school. The burnout was significant.”

The “great retirement” trend played out across the workforce, but those close to retirement are not the only ones leaving the teaching profession.

A national survey of teachers conducted by Merrimack College in 2022 found that just 12 percent of teachers are very satisfied with their jobs, with more than four in ten teachers saying they were very or fairly likely to leave the profession in the next two years.

Campbell said one thing that has changed significantly since he started working is just how much is expected of teachers.

“When I came up through the ranks, it was we’re going to teach kids to read, we’re going to teach kids to do some math, and build some relationships,” he said.

The increased responsibilities constitute what Campbell called “mission creep.” He said many of the new responsibilities such as suicide prevention, eating disorder prevention, and now security, all come with mandatory training.

“There are many, many legal requirements,” Campbell said. “I was on a call today with the state superintendent, and we were talking and discussing just the sheer number of required professional development and training that our professional educators are required to do on an annual basis. School systems are having to frontload professional development days before school even starts to train our teachers.”

Dale Lee, president of the West Virginia Education Association, said the number of requirements sends the message to educators that they aren’t trusted.

“No one wants to go into education when the legislature wants to micromanage everything that you do in the classroom,” Lee said. “No one wants to go into education, many colleges have seen dramatic decreases in the number of students that are going into education. So we have to make it attractive, both financially and with respect.”

Lee, who taught math for decades before moving to the WVEA, says no one knows students and their needs better than the teacher in front of the classroom, and those needs are increasing. That’s in part because of the state’s high opioid use and its impact on students’ families.

“Teachers are becoming the caregivers, the pat on the back or the loving person in front of those kids. A lot of times they’re the only kind words that kid gets during the day is from the educators,” he said. “You become a social worker, you become a nurse, you become just a litany of things that the family unit used to take care of and now the educators have been asked more and more to address those issues.”

Melissa Campbell, a fourth-grade teacher in Ritchie County, has been teaching for 11 years. She agreed that the job has become harder in recent years in no small part because of the mental health requirements of students.

“The children are so different now, and their lifestyles are so different,” Campbell said. “Their traumas are so different, their struggles are so different, that we’re trying to be everything they need, mentally, emotionally, physically, educationally. And to do that, it’s impossible.”

She said schools need more resources to address students’ mental health needs. Outside work, Campbell also feels the pressure of public perception. Growing up, Campbell said being a teacher commanded a certain level of respect, but these days she’s sometimes unsure whether to tell people what she does for work.

“It’s very open, whether it’s social media or the news, you’re gonna see education across the board being thrown in some way in a negative light,” Campbell said. “I think it got too hard for people because you’re taught to keep that down, to keep peace and maintain your shield. But it’s sometimes hard to try to do that.”

Campbell said she loves working with kids, but that alone is not enough to keep her or anyone else in teaching these days. What does keep her going is making sure her students have someone who cares in their life.

“Sometimes they didn’t get an education lesson from me. Some days they just got a therapist, sometimes they got a mom, some days they got a nurse, some days they got whatever, just me being that for them,” Campbell said. “Okay, if I did that, then I feel good. So I think that’s what keeps me going through 11 years now.”

The shortage is not limited to teaching positions. In the same report, the National Center for Education Statistics also reported that 49 percent of public schools report at least one non-teaching staff vacancy in 2022.

Rachel Ringler, human resource service coordinator for Jefferson County Schools, said there are shortages for almost every position. Across the state, shortages of bus drivers and technicians continue to be a concern.

“We are in desperate need of substitutes, for aides, for cooks, custodians, secretaries, general maintenance,” she said.

Pay is a factor both for teachers and staff. According to the most recently available data from the National Center for Education Statistics, West Virginia had an average teacher salary just over $50,000 in 2021, the fourth lowest in the country and $15,000 below the national average teacher salary of $65,000.

For many educators, low pay is the most visible symptom of a much larger issue: a lack of value and respect. But despite setbacks, it continues to be not only a vocation but a passion for most.

“I still think education is one of the most important, I want to call it a job, but it’s, it’s my life,” said Todd Seymour, principal at Preston High School.

For him, the issue boils down to what society prioritizes and rewards.

“With as much as we pay entertainers, and we pay teachers minimal, barely? A lot of teachers have second jobs,” Seymour said. “If you want to talk about one of the reasons they’re leaving, it’s because some of them have to get second jobs to raise a family.”

Ringler agrees that all school workers need to be recognized for the work they do.

“We’re talking a lot about a lot of negatives and not having, but I think we need to turn that in praise all the teachers, all those aides, all the bus drivers, the cafeteria ladies, who we’ve had here with us for, you know, for several years, and and honor them,” she said.

As it stands, the dwindling prestige and pay of education as a career has a knock-on effect the profession will be feeling for years, but efforts are underway to try to turn the tide in favor of the next generation of educators.

——

This story is part of the series, “Help Wanted: Understanding West Virginia’s Labor Force.”

Senate Moves Budget, PEIA, Pay Raises In Saturday Session

The Senate returned Saturday afternoon at 1:45 p.m. after a brief recess to pass several important bills including tax cuts, pay raises for state employees and a budget.

With a compromise on tax cuts seemingly solidified with the passage of House Bill 2526, the Senate was able to pass Senate Bill 150 Saturday afternoon after suspending rules to advance it to third reading.

Senate Finance Committee Chair Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, said total appropriations in the budget would be just over $20 billion. He highlighted several changes to the budget’s original version, including changes made to reflect the dissolution of the Department of Health and Human Resources.

“Each of the state hospitals are broken out into their own budget item,” Tarr said. “This is the first step of many that will begin to separate DHHR into three entities.”

Tarr went on to say that the separation of DHHR’s budget into distinct items is part of a larger push for increased transparency into the department’s – or its successor’s – budgets, by far the largest single portion of the budget each year.

“Instead of seeing just a few pages for a $7 billion budget, we can actually see if they’re getting the money for what the state appropriates it for,” Tarr said.

Tarr also highlighted the appropriations for the Public Employee Insurance Agency pursuant to the completion of Senate Bill 268.

“There’s $49 million in increased reimbursement to health care providers so that we don’t have hospitals saying they don’t accept PEIA,” he said. “It also takes the plan to 80/20 so that it’s solvent for our foreseeable future.”

Tarr referred to the announcement by WVU-Wheeling Hospital just before the start of the legislative session that it would no longer accept PEIA patients starting in July due to its low reimbursement rates.

He also pointed towards more than $30 million in the budget for the implementation of the Third Grade Success Act, as well as money to address deferred maintenance in higher education and state corrections.

The budget would increase appropriations for the Department of Economic Development from $600 million to $900 million and sets aside $10 million for grant raises to go to Emergency Medical Service personnel as well as $50 million to have a National Cancer Institute in West Virginia.

“We have one of the highest incidences of cancer per capita in the United States,” Tarr said. “That National Cancer Institute allows for research into cancer so those patients who are having failed treatments…they now have a means to go get research medicine and get it in research programs with medicine given to them free of charge.”

Tarr ended his summary of the budget by emphasizing spending on dams.

“We’re finally getting a start on taking care of dams in West Virginia that are literally falling apart,” he said. “By doing that we’re gonna save community upon community from damage by floodwaters.”

Big Changes To PEIA

The longest debate of the afternoon surrounded Senate Bill 268, which aims to address the insolvency of PEIA.

Premiums for PEIA members have not been raised since 2012, and the agency currently only reimburses providers at half of the Medicare rate. On the first day of the session, the Senate passed Senate Bill 127 to increase the reimbursement of hospital rates to 110 percent of Medicare.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Takubo, R-Kanawha, explained the bill. He noted that the bill mandates what is known as an 80/20 split for costs between PEIA and employees. He also explained:

The bill removes a cap placed on the annual maximum benefit for Applied Behavioral Analysis.
The bill rearranges mandated benefits placed in other sections of the bill. These benefits included the section that relates to coverage for vaccinations, contraceptives, and group life insurance.
The Group Life Insurance language was amended to reflect that the group life and accidental death insurance is in the amount of 10,000 for every employee, but still allows you to get additional plans to them.
The bill provides that health programs may be offered in addition to existing language that provides PEIA may have wellness programs.
These programs are voluntary and for the participants and separate from any medical benefit.
The bill provides PEIA shall use networks to provide care to its members out of state.
The bill provides that an employee spouse that has health insurance available through another employee, then the employer may not cover any portion of the premiums for the employee spouse coverage unless the employee adds his or her spouse to his or her coverage by paying the cost of the actuarial value of the plan provided that this does not apply to spouses of retired employees.

Sen. Mike Caputo, D-Marion, raised a number of issues, including raises to employee premiums.

“What about the premium increases for each salary tier? As I understand, it can be 14 percent to 26 percent. Is that correct? And how’s that number determined?” he said.

Takubo explained that a higher salary individual with the more expensive plan with family coverage might see a 24 percent increase. He explained the $2,300 pay increase would help buffer the increase.

Caputo ended his statement by expressing concern for retirees on PEIA.

“I’m deeply concerned about the plan participants but I’m more deeply concerned about the retirees,” he said. “We did a little bit for those on the lower tier, but my concerns are this is going to put a huge burden on the folks that serviced the state for so, so many years for so little pay. And now the benefits are even going to be less and less.”

Senate Bill 268 passed on a vote of 29 to four. Caputo was joined in dissent by fellow Democrat Sen. Mike Woelfel, D – Cabell, as well as Sen. Laura Chapman, R-Ohio and Sen. Mike Stuart, R-Kanawha.

Gov. Jim Justice has previously pledged that there would be no PEIA premium increases while he was in office so it is unclear how he will react to the bill. One reason West Virginia teachers went on strike in 2018 and 2019 was proposed hikes to PEIA premiums.

Pay Raises For Some

Senate Bill 423 would allow for a $2,300 across the board pay increase for certain public state employees.

Those eligible for the raise include public school employees as well as employees with the State Police.

A pay increase for other state employees would be subject to the appropriations in the state budget.

Senator Mike Caputo, D-Marion, expressed concern to Finance Committee Chair Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, that the pay raise would not benefit all state employees. Caputo said he had received calls in the past from Department of Highway workers whose salaries are not in the code.

“Do you feel confident that every state employee will get a $2,300 across the board raise whether they are a teacher, or whether they drive the snowplow truck?” Caputo asked.

Tarr responded he was confident that every state employee would receive a pay raise.

“Those agencies… it’s up to them, whether they decide they go up to $2300 because that is not what this law contemplates. The bill before you contemplates a $2,300 pay raise for state employees whose salary is set in the pay schedule and state code,” Tarr said.

Caputo further pressed Tarr for an answer to his question.

“I just want to make sure that everybody believes that there’s money out there for everybody to get a pay raise,” Caputo emphasized.

“We have provided the spending authority in the budget. It’s up to the governor for anybody that’s not a general revenue. When’s the last time we gave a pay raise that didn’t happen?” Tarr responded.