A Spotlight Shines on Benefit of Certain Educational Programs in the State
A bill leadership claims removes educational bureaucracy passed overwhelmingly this week in the House of Delegates.
Education has been a hot button issue this session, with teachers showing up on Friday to address concerns of a one percent teacher pay raise and public employee PEIA premiums. Earlier in the week, delegates debated a bill to attempt to eliminate educational bureaucracy.
Chairman of the House Education Committee Delegate Paul Espinosa, R-Jefferson, said House Bill 4006 was a bill created in response to a 2012 Education Efficiency Audit presented during August 2016 interims.
Espinosa said the legislation was crafted in order to make sure state tax dollars are better spent educating children.
“West Virginia had one of the most top-down, heavily regulated systems ever encountered,” Espinosa said.
Several lawmakers weighed in on the bill, some claiming it would limit the state’s outlet for student creativity.
“If we do this right, we will actually make it more effective and provide more opportunity for the students of our state to learn,” said Delegate Marshall Wilson, R-Berkeley.
Delegate Ricky Moye, D-Raleigh, said the bill doesn’t mandate educators continue programs. Moye said the legislation doesn’t say who will be responsible for duties removed by getting rid of a bill
Delegate Larry Rowe, D-Kanawha, said the bill reorganizes the executive branch and leaves no advocate for the arts.
“Tourism will be more like an office,” he said. “We haven’t focused on this bill from the standpoint of reorganizing state government.”
Delegate Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio, voiced concerns over who testified before committee on just how the bill would impact certain programs.
“I believe there’s a gray area,” Fluharty said. “I don’t understand why we’re attacking creativity as if it’s a bad thing in West Virginia.”
The bill passed 60 to 36 and will now be taken up in the Senate.
