Tag: West Virginia Legislature 2019

W.Va. Senate Passes Controversial Education Omnibus on 18-16 Vote, Measure Heads to Gov. Justice

Despite tornado warnings and a brief recess in which lawmakers and the public were evacuated downstairs at the Capitol, the West Virginia Senate voted Monday to pass a controversial omnibus bill that could most notably lead to the state’s first charter schools. Senators fast-tracked the bill by suspending rules that would normally require they read the bill three times on three separate days. 

 

Under House Bill 206, teacher and school service personnel will receive pay raises. Three charter schools could be established — only by county boards of education — to begin operating in the 2021-2022 academic year with the possibility of three additional charters allowed every three years beginning in 2023.

 

The Senate passed House Bill 206 18-16. Sen. Bill Hamilton, R-Upshur, and Sen. Kenny Mann, R-Monroe, joined Democrats to oppose the measure.

 

The upper chamber voted 32-1 to suspend the Senate’s three-day rule. Sen. John Unger, D-Berkeley, was the lone no vote and Sen. Randy Smith, R-Tucker, was absent for the procedural vote that fast-tracked the bill to a Monday vote.

 

A small number of people sat in the galleries Monday night, and only a few were waiting outside the chamber shortly before senators gaveled in around 5 p.m. The size of the crowd was significantly smaller than other groups that gathered at the Capitol to oppose the bill over the past few months.

 

Senate Democrats Fail to Get Support for Amendments

 

Before Senators returned to Charleston for Monday’s session, Carmichael said he wanted to pass the bill as it came over from the House.

 

However, minority Democrats still tried, but failed, to wipe out charter schools from the bill and implement other changes.

 

Sen. Hamilton again tried to force counties to hold a referendum to allow for the authorization of a charter school. That proposed amendment also failed.

 

West Virginia’s Education ‘Betterment’: Months in the Making

 

The debate over education reform in West Virginia has festered for months. 

 

Teachers went on strike for two days in February as they rallied against Senate Bill 451, the original omnibus measure that ultimately failed in the House during the Legislature’s regular 60-day session.

 

Republican Gov. Jim Justice called the special session on “education betterment” in March after lawmakers were unable to agree upon education reform, despite earmarking the pay raises in the FY 2021 state budget.

 

While voting on the similar omnibus Senate Bill 1039 for education in early June, Democrats refused to suspend the rules before passing it 18-16. The House of Delegates balked on Senate Bill 1039 and Senate Bill 1040, another measure that would have established a voucher program for public dollars to be spent on some aspects of private education.

 

House Creates Its Own Omnibus

 

The House of Delegates cleared House Bill 206 last week on a 57-47 vote after making their way through dozens of amendments. Lawmakers in the lower chamber spent nine hours debating the controversial measure.

 

Some significant changes did occur in the lower chamber as delegates made their way through the amendment process. With House Bill 206 originally calling for a cap of ten charter schools, delegates chose instead to temporarily set that limit at three. Lawmakers also added a back-to-school tax credit to be applied to the purchase of clothes and school supplies. 

 

The House also avoided addressing the rights of school employees to strike and protest, whereas the Senate had amended its bill to include anti-strike provisions that would allow schools to withhold pay or fire employees who strike. 

 

With no changes made in the Senate, House Bill 206 will soon head to the governor’s desk for a signature. Gov. Justice, who had in the past said he opposed charter schools, has said he will sign the bill.

 

West Virginia GOP Chairwoman Endorses Anti-LGBTQ Op-Ed

The leader of West Virginia’s Republican party is applauding a state senator’s call for intolerance against members of the LGBTQ community.

Republican state Sen. Mike Azinger wrote an opinion article Sunday titled “The Shame of LGBTQ Pride” in The Parkersburg News and Sentinel after the paper covered a gay pride picnic. State GOP chairwoman Melody Potter then wrote on Facebook that Azinger’s article was “right on.”

Azinger wrote that “sexual deviancy is going mainstream” and he says the solution “is not political correctness and tolerance.”

Azinger did not return a voicemail and an email. Potter did not return a call to her office.

Andrew Schneider is the executive director of the advocacy group Fairness West Virginia. He says Potter and Azinger are forgetting their scripture when it comes to loving others.

West Virginia House Passes Controversial Omnibus After Hours of Debate Over Charter Schools

Updated Wednesday, Jun 19, 2019 at 11:40 p.m. 

The West Virginia House of Delegates has passed its version of a long, sweeping and controversial education reform measure. The bill, which is the latest in a series of omnibus proposals, cleared the lower chamber Wednesday on a 51-47 vote after delegates considered amendments on third reading.

Education reform efforts failed during the regular legislative session, so lawmakers are in the middle of a special session. The months-long debate — which took up more than nine hours on the House floor Wednesday — about overhauling the state’s public education system has focused on charter schools. Teachers, their unions and Democrats oppose the school choice measures touted by leaders of the Republican majority.

“I think we are at great risk — if we’ve not crossed the point of no return — of doing lasting damage to our state by demoralizing the educators in our state,” Minority Leader Tim Miley, D-Harrison said just before the bill went to a vote.

 
House Education Chair Del. Paul Espinosa, R-Jefferson, lauded the passage of the bill and said he hopes the bill clears the Senate with little issue. 

 
“I think it’s a big win for not only traditional public education, but parents and children who certainly have expressed an interest in having some of the same education choice options that are prevalent across the country,” Espinosa said. “By and large, I think the amendments strengthen the bill.”

 
West Virginia teachers and other school employees went on a two-day strike in February. They successfully rallied against a Senate omnibus bill that included similar proposals.

 
House Bill 206, as passed Wednesday in the House, would give teachers and school service personnel a pay raise but also include proposals teachers and union leaders have called attacks on public education.

West Virginia Education Association president Dale Lee said the passage of the bill means his members will continue their fight in the Senate. He said he thinks some lawmakers saw holding the special session in the summer might have slowed teachers efforts to oppose the bill. 

“These people are committed. What I hope now is that they continue that commitment. They continued into this next year, and they continue the commitment into the 2020 election,” Lee said. “Because that’s the next step that we have to do is we are not satisfied with the way things go in the House and the Senate. We have to change the makeup of the houses.”

A majority of speakers, including many educators, voiced their opposition to the measure during a Wednesday morning public hearing.

Harrison County teacher Tonya Stuart Rinehart used her 60 seconds at the podium to silently protest school choice proposals such as charter schools. She placed a piece of duct tape with “88%” written across it — to represent a state Department of Education report that showed 88 percent of the public opposes charters.

Later that afternoon, lawmakers made their way through more than two dozen proposed changes to the bill.

The amendments adopted Wednesday include allowing for three charter schools for the 2021-2022 academic year and then — beginning in 2023 — allowing for three more charters every three years. The original bill capped the number of charter schools at ten. County school boards would be the only entity allowed to authorize a charter.

The change on charter schools — which Del. Espinosa described as part of a deal between the House, the Senate and Gov. Jim Justice — was adopted on a 51-44 vote.

Other approved changes include:

  • A tax credit for parents buying back-to-school clothes and supplies beginning July 1, 2021.
  • Preventing the Schools for the Deaf and Blind from applying to become a charter school.
  • Increasing the ratio of support personnel to students from 4.7 per 1,000 to 5.0 per 1,000.

Following changes to the conditions on the number of charter schools, Del. Mark Dean, R-Mingo, proposed an amendment that would have eviscerated charter school language from the bill. Dean’s amendment, which was debated for nearly two hours, was rejected 45-52.

The House, which returned to its work Monday, balked at two Senate proposals that addressed education. The upper chamber’s omnibus included anti-strike provisions, which aren’t in House Bill 206. The House also did not act on a Senate bill that calls for education savings accounts, a voucher program that allows for public dollars to be spent on private school tuition.

Following the passage of House Bill 206, Del. Pat McGeehan tried to force the Senate into accepting the proposal as is by moving to adjourn sine die. McGeeehan’s motion was defeated  on a 38-58 vote, thus allowing for both the Senate and House to continue work on the measure. 

House Bill 206 now heads to the Senate for consideration. 

W.Va. House Gets Set For Public Hearing, Vote on Latest Education Omnibus

The West Virginia House of Delegates has advanced its own omnibus education bill and is getting set for a vote on the complex and controversial measure. The measure moved forward during a Tuesday floor session in which teachers lined the galleries to watch the proceedings.

 

House Bill 206 calls for pay raises for teachers and school service personnel but also allows for 10 charter schools, to be authorized only by county boards of education, which could open starting with in the 2021-2022 academic year. Majority Republicans originated the 144-page bill Monday in a select committee on education.

 

The measure does not include anti-strike language that is included in the Senate’s proposed education-reform bill.

 

However, union leaders call the bill more of the same and oppose the House and Senate omnibus bills.

 

The House will hold a public hearing at 8 a.m. Wednesday before considering the bill on a final reading with a right to amend.

 

If House Bill 206 clears the lower chamber, the Senate would need to give the measure three readings, which throws into question when the special session might wrap up.

 

W.Va. House Unveils Its Own Omnibus In Busy Monday Session on Education

With hundreds of teachers, school service personnel and other supporters spread across the capitol complex Monday, the West Virginia House of Delegates…

With hundreds of teachers, school service personnel and other supporters spread across the capitol complex Monday, the West Virginia House of Delegates began its work on a special session focused on overhauling public education. Monday offered a flurry of activity in the House of Delegates, with floor sessions and committee meetings illustrating a mostly partisan divide — and majority Republicans unveiling new proposals.

 

The issue of education has festered at the Capitol for months, with leading Republican lawmakers continuing to push school choice proposals like charter schools and education savings accounts.

 

Teachers in West Virginia walked off the job for two days in February to oppose those proposals — as well as others they call “attacks on public education” — and have continued to make their presence felt in Charleston and elsewhere around the state.

 

House Democrats Fail to Stall Senate Omnibus, Attempt to Adjourn Session

 

Shortly after gaveling in Monday morning, Del. Mick Bates, D-Raleigh, called on lawmakers to refuse the Senate’s message on the passage of Senate Bill 1039. The measure, which includes pay raises, charter schools and a provision that would punish teachers for going on strike, narrowly cleared the upper chamber earlier this month on a 18-15 vote.

 

Majority Leader Amy Summers then moved to table Bates’ motion. Summers’ motion was adopted on a 53-44 vote.

 

But Democrats in the House didn’t stop there in trying to slow down the Republican-led Legislature’s efforts on education reform.

 

Del. Mike Caputo, D-Marion, moved to have the House abandon the special session and adjourn sine die. That motion was rejected on a mostly party line vote 41-56. In breaking with their respective parties, Republican Del. Pat McGeehan (Hancock) and Tony Paynter (Wyoming) voted to adjourn, while Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, supported the continuation of the session.

 

Following those rejected motions, Del. Bates addressed the House to voice his opposition to the Senate proposals and the special session as a whole.

 

“Under Senate President Mitch Carmichael’s leadership and Gov. Justice’s lack of it, ‘betterment’ has become an embarrassment,” Bates said on the floor. “Because of their actions and inactions, Mr. Speaker, you and this House have the opportunity to show leadership and to join together with us and send a message that we don’t intend to spend the next week wasting time and money debating things that people say they don’t want when we could be spending time ensuring they have the things that they need.”

 

 

House Offers Its Own Omnibus, Other Separate Proposals

 

Throughout meetings Monday, four select committees originated a number of bills related to the special session. One of those measures would provide only for a pay raise, while others address various aspects of public education.

 

But most notably, the House Education Select Committee C unveiled their own omnibus, House Bill 206. Like Senate Bill 1039, House Bill 2016 includes teacher and service personnel pay raises — but it does offer some differences from the Senate’s complex and controversial bill.

 

Although House Bill 206 allows for charter schools, the 144-page bill would cap the number at ten, could only be approved by county boards and couldn’t be established before 2021. The measure also does not include language that would punish teachers for going on strike.

 

Del. Sean Hornbuckle, D-Ohio, sought to send the new House omnibus to the chamber’s education committee.

 

Hornbuckle’s motion was rejected on a 42-54 vote.

 

House Sessions Will Continue Into Tuesday, Wednesday

 

With Republicans in the House unable to suspend the rules and put the bills up for a vote Monday, the special session will continue into Tuesday.

 

House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, acknowledged the need for the chamber to complete its work as quickly as possible. He suggested that he hopes the House will finish by the end of this week.

 

“I think if we don’t get it done this week, it just drags on  into the summer months when people already have vacation schedule — they have work commitments, they have professional trainings, they have family affairs, they have all the things that Americans do,” Hanshaw said. “And I think if we don’t get it done this week, there’s there’s a high likelihood that we would just not not take it up until we get back together again, at a regularly scheduled time.”

 

With the House select committee taking no action on controversial measures like Senate Bill 1039 and Senate Bill 1040 (which calls for education savings accounts — a voucher program for public dollars to be spent on private education), Hanshaw said it was important for the House to come up with its own version of education reform.

 

“I hope you notice that we actually started somewhat afresh here. So we’ve created a House Bill out of it. We want the public to understand that this is a House product. This is not the House taking what the Senate did, whole cloth. It’s quite a different bill,” Hanshaw said.

 

But union leaders have called the new omnibus more of the same and have called on delegates to reject the latest large proposal.

 

Should the House pass only bills of their own making and leave Senate Bills by the wayside, the Senate would need to work through three readings of each, further extending the special session.

 

The House of Delegates will return to action at 1 p.m. Tuesday, and the House Education Select Committee C will hold a public hearing Wednesday at 8 a.m. on House Bill 206.

 

 

 

W.Va. Senate Approves Latest Controversial Omnibus Bill, Education Savings Accounts

Updated Monday, June 3, 2019 at 1:40 p.m. The West Virginia Senate has passed a complex and controversial education reform bill that contains anti-strike…

Updated Monday, June 3, 2019 at 1:40 p.m.

 

The West Virginia Senate has passed a complex and controversial education reform bill that contains anti-strike provisions that say teachers can be fired for walking off the job and allows for the state’s first charter schools. The upper chamber also passed a measure creating education savings accounts, another controversial issue touted by majority Republicans.

Senate Bill 1039, also known as the “Student Success Act,” cleared the upper chamber Monday on an 18-15 vote, with Republican Sen. Bill Hamilton (Upshur) and Sen. Kenny Mann (Monroe) joining Democrats in opposing the measure.

The Republican proposal ties school employee pay raises, mental health services for students and more administrative flexibility on the county level to provisions public educators say are attacks on their profession.

Teachers, service personnel and the leaders of their unions have opposed charter schools, a change to how layoffs would be considered and provisions that codify consequences for going on strike.

Gov. Jim Justice called a special session back on education in March — before the end of the regular session. He told reporters Sunday he wished the 142-page bill would be broken up into multiple proposals.

Senate Democrats, who introduced eight bills of their own to address public education, have called the bill retaliation for teachers going on strike twice since the beginning of 2018.

Senators also approved Senate Bill 1040 on Monday. It would create education savings accounts — a voucher-like program that allows for public funds to be used in a private setting. The measure passed on a 18-15 vote, with Hamilton and Mann again breaking from the majority Republicans.

Republicans say the bill offers parents more options in getting an education that works for individual students. Democrats argue the voucher program would be susceptible to fraud and could allow for private schools to discriminate against students.

Both the omnibus reform measure and the education savings accounts bill now head to the House of Delegates, which is scheduled to reconvene June 17.

 

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