One in four children in West Virginia lived in poverty in 2022, the second highest rate of any state in the country. With the state pursuing education reform focused on funneling taxpayer funding out of public schools and into the private sector via the Hope Scholarship, West Virginia's voucher program which is growing more expensive…
Education
Associated Press, Cumberland Times-News - West Virginia Republican Gov. Jim Justice’s administration has been characterized by flat budgets and record surpluses that helped cut the state’s income tax last year. Read the full article. Now, the state could face collateral damage: a possible $465 million clawback of pandemic aid by the U.S. Department of Education. It has…
West Virginia MetroNews, Dominion Post - West Virginia has a $465 million question with the federal government based not on any allegations of misspending — but instead over whether school systems fell short on an obligation to maintain financial support for education at levels in line with overall spending. Read the full article. A revelation…
Daily Kos - West Virginia’s almost entirely Republican state Senate passed a bill in late January that would require schools in the state to display “In God We Trust'' signs—in every single classroom. When the state’s House Education Committee took up the bill, it was initially amended to require signage in a single prominent area of each…
Charleston Gazette-Mail - As if West Virginia’s legislative GOP supermajority had relocated to the island of Dr. Moreau and set up shop in subterranean laboratories, it has concocted a zoo full of educational systems. Read the full op-ed. Among their results are micro-schools, pod schools, home schools and other species they assure us will lead…
West Virginia Watch - The Senate will consider a bill that backs elementary teachers’ decision to remove violent or threatening students. The legislation could cost cash-strapped school districts, which would be on the hook for creating alternative learning environments for removed students. Read the full article. Senate Education Chair Amy Grady, a public school teacher…
WVNS, Yahoo News - It’s a stereotype that kids like to skip school and that they may celebrate when bad weather closes school doors. But West Virginia teachers are seeing a serious rise in chronic absenteeism, despite laws making truancy a crime and holding adult guardians legally accountable. Read the full article. According to Balanced…
WVNS - In small towns across America, high school games draw folks out to stadiums and bring communities together, all in a show of team spirit. Read the full article. “Being an athlete on a team, you have to go through some pretty rigorous practices and other issues to be a part of that team,…
Times West Virginian - Last year, freshman state delegate Mike DeVault, R-Marion County, was eager to get to work in Charleston, but like a high school student fighting sleep after a long night slumbering, the legislative process itself was less than ready to hit the ground running. Read the full article. “When we got there,…
Wheeling News-Register - School discipline, capital punishment for fentanyl pushers, funding for EMS and non-uniformed corrections staff, and data privacy are just some of the bills legislative leaders in West Virginia plan to push in the upcoming session next week. Read the full article. Legislative leaders in the West Virginia Senate and House of Delegates…