Our Children Our Future Policy Workshops Joining All Corners of the State This month people from across the state who want to see policy change have come together in Lewisburg, Clarksburg and Hurricane. There is one more Our Children Our Future Policy workshop to go, next week in Martinsburg. With 23 ideas for positive…
Budget Beat
Here's Why You Want to Be a Part of This Month's Our Children Our Future Policy Workshops 1. This cool three-minute video. Check it out, you'll feel inspired. 2. You care about the future of West Virginia. And part of that means taking care of the state's workers. We can do a better…
Our Children Our Future Policy Workshops Are Just Around the Corner No matter where you live in West Virginia there is an opportunity for you to get involved in the Our Children Our Future campaign to help bring an end to child poverty. Join us for a day-long training to learn how to make change…
West Virginia Birthday Wishes: Making higher education an affordable possibility for the state's young people: There was disappointing news for college graduates last week as a measure aimed to allow them to refinance their college loan debt at today's lower interest rates was blocked in the U.S. Senate. West Virginia's college grads average $25,000 in…
Coal In Decline Even Without New EPA Rules New EPA rules to cut carbon emissions have dominated the headlines since they were announced. Arguably no state had a stronger negative reaction than West Virginia where the changes are seen as reigniting President Obama's "War on Coal." Coal production has been in decline for years, however,…
Funding Cuts Restored This week, the legislature voted to fully restore funding cuts to family-support programs that Governor Tomblin had vetoed in March. Governor Tomblin has said he will sign the legislation this time around. Support in the House of Delegates was unanimous, with a vote of 90-0. In reversing course, the governor and legislators…
Some Funding Cuts Restored This week, Governor Tomblin announced that he would restore one-time funding to some of the family-support programs that were impacted by his veto in March. While he did restore $260,000, this falls far short of the $1 million in funding passed by the legislature. The Our Children Our Future campaign will…
West Virginia One of Just Eight States Still Cutting Funding for Higher Education Now that the recession is in the past, most states are restoring funding to higher education. West Virginia, however, is still reducing funding, second only to Wyoming, spending 21.6% less per student in FY 2014 than in FY2008, a reduction of over…
Report Calls on Governor to Restore Budget Cuts In a report released this week, the Our Children Our Future campaign called upon Governor Tomblin to restore budget cuts to vital family support programs. In March, the governor vetoed over $1 million in funding to programs that help prevent domestic violence, provide in-home visiting and much…
Wetzel County Not Seeing Same Impact from Natural Gas Drilling as Neighboring States West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania are undoubtedly at ground zero when it comes to the gas drilling boom created by fracking in the Marcellus Shale. A new report out this week, however, shows that Wetzel County has felt the gas boom differently…