Following up on my previous post on education spending, here are some more data on the issue. Last time, I broke down the state's per pupil spending into several categories, and made comparisons to spending nationwide. I found that for the most part, education spending in West Virginia is about on par with spending nationally,…
Education
The education efficiency audit initiated by Governor Tomblin has attracted a great deal of attention in the state, and will likely be a major part of the upcoming legislative session. The audit was produced with two goals for the state: 1) producing the best possible outcome for its students, and 2) receiving the highest return…
As the nation inches closer to the dreaded "fiscal cliff," much of the public's anxiety is focused on spending cuts and income tax increases that will hit middle- and upper-income households unless Congress and the president strike a deal that pulls us back from the edge. Read Comparatively little attention is being paid to the…
West Virginia’s children are struggling to attend school, develop healthy lifestyles, and receive their high school diploma. During the 2011/2012 school year, one in three students in West Virginia had at least five unexcused absences from school. Truant children often fall behind their peers, perform worse in school, and are more likely to drop out. More than one…
Our state safety net is a crucial lifeline for families and children in poverty, whether it is providing child care assistance to help a single mom get to work, providing affordable and quality health care to a child or disabled person, or ensuring that kids can get breakfast at school. Unfortunately, West Virginia has one…
As part of the "fiscal cliff" and "grand bargain" deficit negotiations, some CEOs, politicians, and pundits are saying that raising the retirement age of Social Security should be on the deficit chopping block despite the fact that it does not contribute to the federal budget deficit. Raising the retirement age is usually premised on the…
West Virginia is nearly a month away from reductions in childcare assistance eligibility requirements that will ipact over 800 parents and 1,400 children. Families that make between 150-185 percent of the Federal Poverty Level will be dropped from the program on January 1, 2013. The changes in eligibility could not only force parents to quite their…
Here is an interesting, if troubling blog post from the Center for Economic and Policy Research. The post shows that low-wage workers (those making less than $10.00 an hour in 2011 dollars) are becoming more educated. In every state across the country, low wage workers are more educated than they were thirty years ago, meaning that…
West Virginia lags behind much of the country in many areas, but one particular measure may explain many of the others; West Virginia's workforce is poorly educated. West Virginia's workforce is plagued by low wages. One explanation for the state's low wages could be the low educational attainment of its workforce. Earnings increase with educational…