The House of Delegates convened at 11a.m on the 37th day of the regular session of the 84th West Virginia Legislature to consider a number of bills on third reading, including the highly debated Senate Bill 451, a bill to reform public education in West Virginia.

The House of Delegates passed the strike-and-insert amendment to Senate Bill 451, which includes several comprehensive provisions to amend public education policy within the state. The amendment would set uniform levy rates for county boards in the state, offer an open enrollment policy for student transfer eligibility, and cap the amount of charter schools allowed in the state at 2. The strike-and-insert amendment would also replenish funding for WV innovation zones by $5 million, include social workers and psychologists within public K-12 schools, eliminate educational savings accounts completely, and provide for one law enforcement officer per WV school. There would also be financial incentive for math and science teachers in the state, and a 5 percent pay raise for teachers.

Delegate Eric Householder, R-Berkley, provided the House of Delegates with a fiscal note of $202,570,438 for the gross cost of all of the provisions included within the accepted version of Senate Bill 451.

Discussion ensued over whether or not the updated version of Senate Bill 451 was worth passing.

Delegate Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio, argued that the input of teachers wasn’t valued enough in the creation of Senate Bill 451, and that the Senate would make significant changes to whatever the House passed.

“I’m not taking the bait here,” Fluharty said. “Senate is going to reject this if it goes through, we are going to go into conference committee, and we’re going to get stuck with a pile of garbage. I’ve seen it before.”

Other delegates were concerned about the constitutionality of the bill as it pertains to the Single Object Rule in the state constitution. This rule provides that there should be one idea per piece of legislation to prevent political log-rolling.

Delegate Pat McGeehan, R-Hancock, was one of these delegates.

“The means don’t always justify the ends,” McGeehan said. “If you take your oath of office seriously and measure the morality of the situation, this isn’t right.”

While major concerns regarding the passage of Senate Bill 451 were vocalized, a lot of support for the bill was as well.

Delegate Matt Rohrbach, R- Cabell, was impressed with the House of Delegates’ ability to compromise and create a bipartisan bill after the 11 hour House floor session yesterday.

“We listened to our constituents, we listened to the stakeholders, and most importantly, we compromised.” Rohrbach said.

Delegate Isaac Sponaugle, D-Pendleton, spoke on the confidence that he had in voting “yes” on Senate Bill 451, even if the bill does to conference committee.

“I trust the Speaker to hold the House’s position in confidence,” Sponaugle said.

In the end, the House strike-and-insert amendment proposed to Senate Bill 451 prevailed in a 71-29 vote.

All other bills on third reading, with the exception of House Bill 2173 and House Bill 2992 which were tabled for one day, passed the House as well on this day.

House Bill 2338, a bill that would exempt antique military vehicles from using certain registration insignia that covers the original markings of the vehicle, was passed unanimously by the House.

Another House Bill that was passed unanimously was House Bill 2359, a bill that would exempt commercial motor vehicle operators employed with a farm related service industry from the commercial driver’s license requirements. West Virginia citizens employed in the fields of agrichemical business, harvesting, livestock feeding, and other applicable careers would be exempt from getting a commercial driver’s license for a limited time.

House Bill 2673 was passed after little debate. This bill would create the Oil and Gas Abandoned Well Plugging Fund, which would create a tax exemption from certain gas wells in the state and provide funds for the WV Environmental Protection Agency to plug more orphaned wells.

To bills regarding hunting in the state of West Virginia were passed on this day: House Bill 2709 is a bill that mandates that information given to the Department of Natural Resources for hunting licenses are not subject to discovery with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. House Bill 2715 would create a specialized Class Q hunting permit for disabled persons.

House Bill 2739 was passed on this day. This bill was passed by both chambers in the previous year, but did not complete legislative action in time. This bill would make it a criminal offense for any participating public employer of any retirement system administered by the Consolidated Public Retirement Board to fail to make required contributions.

House Bill 2743 made technical updates to code regarding pension funds. This bill would delete a reference to municipal policemen’s pension or municipal firefighter’s pension as restrictions on pensions funds are contained in another section. This bill was passed unanimously by the House.

House Bill 2761 would modernize the self-storage lien law. The bill clarifies what rights owners have, what dates would be made effective after July 1, 2019, among other technical code changes. This bill unanimously passed through the House.

House Bill 2793 would expand the applicability of educational facilities that are eligible for consideration under the West Virginia Prepaid Tuition and Savings Program. Currently in code, only institutions of higher education are included. This bill would also include certain private K-12 state institutions to be included in the program.

House Bill 2821 would make a financial adjustment within the institution of the national guard. This bill would clarify the recipient of command and clerical pay and to allow for an appropriate annual adjustment.

House Bill 2848 relates to the WV ABLE Act. This bill would raise the age requirement for eligibility from 21 to 26, thus matching the federal ABLE act. It also clarifies that family members and attorneys are permitted to manage a beneficiary’s ABLE account.

Bills on second reading that were advanced without amendment included House Bill 2538, House Bill 2579, House Bill 2618, and House Bill 2846.

Consideration of amendments for Senate Bill 377 was postponed for one day.

House Bill 2472 and House Bill 2716 both underwent technical amendments.

All bills on first reading were advanced.

The House is adjourned until 11 a.m. tomorrow, Friday, February 15.

Committees Meeting After Floor Session Today:

• The House Committee on Seniors, Children, and Family Issues will convene 15 minutes after the House floor session in 215-E.
• The House Committee on Health and Human Resources will meet at 3:15 p.m. in 215-E.
• The House Committee on Energy will meet at 3:15 p.m. in 418-M.
• The House Committee on Prevention and Treatment of Substance Abuse will meet at 4 p.m. in 215-E.
• The House Committee on Political Subdivisions will meet at 4 p.m. in 432-M.
• The House Committee on Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security will meet at 5:30 p.m. in 432-M. 

Committees Meeting Before Floor Session Tomorrow:

• The House Committee on Education will meet at 9 a.m. tomorrow in 432-M.
• The House Committee on Finance will meet at 9 a.m. tomorrow in 460-M.
• The House Committee on Government Organization will meet at 9 a.m. tomorrow in 215-E.
• The House Committee on the Judiciary will meet at 9 a.m. tomorrow in 418-M.

As of 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 13, the House of Delegates continues their work on the second reading of Senate Bill 451.

The House of Delegates has considered and passed a number of secondary amendments to the strike-and-insert amendment to Senate Bill 451, which was passed out of the House Education Committee last week.

One of these amendments was an amendment proposed by Delegate Paul Espinosa, R-Jefferson; Tom Bibby, R-Berkley; Delegate Daryl Cowles, R- Morgan; and Delegate S. Marshall Wilson, R-Berkley, notated as HFA Espinosa et al 2-13 #2.

This amendment, which was overwhelmingly passed by the House, would allow school personnel to be suspended or dismissed if they are found by the Department of Health and Human Services to be abusive to students within public schools.

Delegate Mick Bates, D-Raleigh and a large number of Democratic delegates also drafted an amendment for consideration that would strike all of Senate Bill 451’s references to charter schools. HFA Bates et al 2-13 was tabled indefinitely until all other amendments addressing charter schools were considered.

Five amendments proposed by Delegate S. Marshall Wilson, R-Berkley, called for increasing the number of charter schools permitted in the state by significant amounts.

The strike-and-insert primary amendment passed out of the House Education Committee currently allows for 2 charter schools.

Wilson proposed multiple highly-contested amendments to increase the number of charter schools allowed to unlimited, one per county, 25 maximum charter schools allowed in the state, and 20 maximum charter schools allowed in the state.

Delegate Terry Waxman, R-Harrison, addressed the Delegates in voting for the Wilson secondary amendments.

“The allowance of charter schools in the state is permissive,” Waxman said. “It gives our parents the right to choose. This is for freedom. Think long and hard before pressing that red button, because you’re voting against freedom.”

All five of the proposed amendments to increase the number of charter schools permitted failed overwhelmingly.

Delegate Doug Skaff, D- Kanawha, defended the body’s opposition to charter schools.

“This body continues to speak loudly against charter schools,” Skaff said. “We have to put faith in our current system and fund it.”

Upon HFA Bates et al 2-13 being reconsidered after the consideration of other charter school amendments, the vote came incredibly close.

As a result of the roll call vote, charter school references remain in the bill indefinitely, in a close 49-45 vote.

The House of Delegates continues to have consideration of the proposed amendments to Senate Bill 451 as of 9:54 p.m., Wednesday, February 13. More updates to this bill are pending as the floor session continues.