CHARLESTON – Hiring more teacher aides, changing the way colleges and universities receive state tax dollars, and making improvements to health insurance and retiree benefits for teachers and staff are some of the wishes for the 2022 legislative session.
Legislators, higher education representatives and teachers union officials presented their case for these initiatives Friday during the 2022 legislative look for the West Virginia Press Association. The 2022 legislative session begins on Wednesday.
The annual Lookahead event was scheduled to be held at the Cultural Center in Charleston after going to a virtual event last year due to COVID-19, but a positive COVID infection among Press Association employees and a snowfall Thursday night put the event back on Zoom. .
Members of the press and lobbyists heard a Friday morning session devoted to education issues. The only member of the Republican leadership team for both the Senate Education Committees and the House of Delegates who participated was Delegate Joe Statler, R. Monongalia.
Statler is the deputy chair of the House Education Committee, replacing former Putnam County delegate Joshua Higginbotham. Higginbotham resigned to run for the state Senate in 2022.
Statler said House Republicans are working on a bill to hire and train first- and second-grade teacher assistants. Following the model established by the state’s successful pre-kindergarten program, Statler said Republican lawmakers want to hire as many as 1,800 teaching assistants at a cost of about $68 million.
Under the current draft of the bill, first and second grade teachers with more than 12 students in a class will be required to have at least one aide in the class. Providing aides will help students be able to receive more individual attention from teachers, Statler said.
“I think this legislation would be very productive in this state, because it allows for more one-on-one relationships with students,” Statler said. “It actually adds to the help we can give these students…We know that building the foundation and education is critical so that these students get what they need, particularly in the reading skills to move forward.”
Last month, Governor Jim Justice proposed a 5% increase in salaries for state employees, teachers and school service personnel from July when the new fiscal year begins. The Justice Organization has also proposed a one-time 2.5% bonus starting this year.
Delegate Ed Evans, D-McDowell, is a minority member of the House Education Committee and a retired science teacher. He said more funding should be used to recruit and retain certified teachers.
According to the state Department of Education, there are more than 1,000 vacancies for certified teachers in West Virginia.
“I am happy with the fact that our teachers are expecting a pay increase, but you know, we should also be looking for ways to recruit these smarter and better young people,” Evans said. “The educators I spoke with, especially the[Education Council]members and teachers, tell me they simply can’t fill the jobs… We are losing our youngest, we are losing them left and right. They come in, they spend two years, and they decide it’s not for them. We have to find out what the problem is” .
Senator Ron Stallings, de Boone, is a minority member of the Senate Education Committee and a physician in his hometown of Madison. He called for some of the federal COVID-19 dollars in the US bailout to be used to boost funding for a birth to three program that provides support to low-income families with limited access to developmental programs for their children.
“I think somehow we have to strengthen the Birth Three Program,” Stallings said. “We don’t have a bad Birth Three Program, but we just need to put it on steroids, if you want, because that’s the only thing that will save us, In the future.”
Dale Lee, president of the West Virginia Educational Association, also lent his support to Justice’s proposal to increase public employee pay, though he also called for a cost-of-living adjustment for public servant retirees. Li called on lawmakers to raise the salaries of teachers and school staff and make them more competitive with neighboring countries.
Li also called for new solutions to financing the Public Employees Insurance Agency. While premiums for PEIA did not increase in the face of justice, Lee worries that public servants will not be so lucky under the next governor.
“We have to talk about PEIA,” he told me. “If you look at PEIA’s five-year plan, you’re looking at about a 15% increase in premiums, and then about another 9% increase in employee premiums expected in the coming years. We have to find a solution for PEIA.”
Lawmakers will also consider creating two performance-based funding formulas to distribute more than $400 million in tax dollars annually from the general revenue budget to the state’s ten colleges and universities and nine community and technical colleges based on the Tennessee program.
“This would be just another piece of legislation that would really help,” Statler said. “Colleges and universities will also have some certainty that they can continue, and that they don’t have to wait until the end of the session when the budget is passed to see roughly where their money is now.”
The actual formula is being developed by the Higher Education Policy Committee/West Virginia Community and Technical College System, though lawmakers have been informed of progress. Once completed, lawmakers will receive a bill for approval.
Mira Martin, president of Vermont State University and chair of the West Virginia Council of Presidents, said the formula will determine taxpayer state funding for higher education institutions based on several education outcomes, including how many students complete a set amount of credit hours, college graduates, and how colleges spend the money. On research, the number of students entering the workforce.
Combined, these metrics will allow institutions to directly support students in obtaining a degree on time, while producing graduates who are ready to work and able to meet the evolving economic needs of the state, thus providing taxpayers with tremendous returns on their investment, while also ensuring that institutions continue to advance their missions. unique in higher education for the public good,” Martin said.
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