CHARLESTON, W.Va. — We’re in a new age, where elected figures can tell you what they’re thinking in a series of tweets.
Gov. Jim Justice just appointed three new members to the state school board and now will appoint two more after Tuesday night’s unexpected resignations of board President Mike Green and vice president Lloyd Jackson.
In their resignation statements, Green and Jackson alluded to not being on board with Justice’s vision of how the state school board should work. Justice has repeatedly described a desire to get West Virginia’s education system out of the hands of bureaucrats in Charleston.
The two most recent resignations will give Justice the capacity to appoint five members of the 9-member board, all in the first few weeks of his administration.
By this morning, Justice’s official governor’s Twitter account made four statements about the school board situation. They doubled down on his distaste for bureaucrats and said he’ll form a school board that reforms the state’s education system.
Gov. Justice statement on Board of Education vacancies: The people of WV are demanding a new playbook for our schools and I will deliver.
— Governor Jim Justice (@WVGovernor) February 1, 2017
Our schools need more local control and they won’t thrive until we get bureaucrats out of the way.
— Governor Jim Justice (@WVGovernor) February 1, 2017
I will reform West Virginia’s schools from the bottom up. We need to let teachers teach.
— Governor Jim Justice (@WVGovernor) February 1, 2017
I will appoint more reformers to the state board who will join me transforming WV. We owe every one of our students a world-class education.
— Governor Jim Justice (@WVGovernor) February 1, 2017