What Additional Cuts Would Mean for Higher Ed

On The Legislature Today, education is once again debated on the Senate floor, but this time the education chair shares concerns over a bill he’s sponsoring.

In the House, delegates progress a Right-to-Work bill one that makes changes to the current law being challenged in the state’s court system.

And advocates are pushing second chance laws that they say will help felons reintegrate into their communities and keep them out of prison in the future.

Those stories and more on The Legislature Today.

Members of the Senate were supposed to take up a bill Thrusday to repeal the Common Core education standards and replace them with Math and English standards written some 20 years ago by California and Massachusetts. The bill, however, was pushed back for the second day in a row, Thursday after the chamber’s Education chair spoke against it.

Senators also debated an election bill on the floor Thursday, one that deals with how the governor is required to fill vacancies in elected offices. The bill is the result of a 2016 resignation in the Senate, one by a former member who changed party affiliation to give Republicans a majority in the chamber.

A bill that sparked some debate in the Senate has made its way to the House of Delegates. It would make changes to the West Virginia Workplace Freedom Act, or the state’s right-to-work law.

Testimonies of drug addiction, recovery, jail sentences and second chances were hand delivered to House Speaker Tim Armstead’s office Thursday by constituents advocating for so called “second chance” legislation.