CHARLESTON, W.Va. — As the West Virginia House of Delegates takes up the omnibus education reform legislation this week, members of the state Senate continue to reflect unfavorably on the sequence of events leading up to the bill’s passage in their chamber.
Sen. Rollan Roberts, R-Raleigh, who serves on the Senate Education Committee, spoke with MetroNews affiliate WJLS-AM about what he described as a disjointed, haphazard process, driven by partisan disputes, as his colleagues considered the merits of the wide-ranging proposal.
“Several (components of the bill) were not even debated. What is going on here is we just kind of have a — year after year after year — Hatfield-McCoy feud going on here, and we’re all hurting because of this. Something’s got to break loose, so that children and teachers and taxpayers, all of us, can profit from improvement,” he said, noting instances of common procedural moves being challenged by committee members.
“There was some blockading going on, to even pull out the class-size suggestion, to increase class sizes. A motion was put on the floor by Senator (Charles) Trump (R-Morgan) to eliminate that, and there were protests with the other education committee members, and they said, ‘No, no, no, that’s right.’ And, what ended up is, that punted the football on down until the following week. And, it just had everybody upset.”
Roberts also expressed disappointment regarding the actions and behavior of advocacy groups and agencies connected to public education, whom he suggested appeared to be more concerned about certain aspects of the bill than about actual improvement in education.
“You had the heads of the two teachers unions tell us, in essence, ‘Everything’s good with public education.’ They are in total denial that we need to change anything in public education. And, you head a member of the state (education) board — these are good people — but they all defended the status quo,” he said.
Roberts, who is a proponent of allowing charter schools in West Virginia, said the ongoing debate on the matter has been hampered by misinformation and skewed arguments against offering expanded alternatives to traditional public schools.
“We have innovation zones, and we have the Mountaineer Academy. If you consider them to be taking money from the public schools, then charter schools will do the same. They are in the same category as those things. I don’t consider that taking money from public schools. I consider that as giving more options to be able to meet the needs of children, during their school years,” said Roberts.
Roberts, who had not run for public office until 2018, is serving in his first term as a member of the Senate. He has been the senior pastor at Victory Baptist Church in Beaver, since 1988, and also is an administrator and instructor at Victory Baptist Academy in Beaver. Roberts has served on boards of directors for both national and state educational organizations, over the past several years.
The omnibus bill is now being considered by the House Education Committee, where several fundamental changes are expected, before the measure moves to the full House for consideration.