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Tomblin: ‘It’s about the kids’

Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin used his State of the State address Wednesday night to declare that the quality of public education in West Virginia is “not acceptable” and proposed significant reforms.

Citing statics showing West Virginia at or near the bottom in student achievement, Tomblin called for a series of education reforms that will dominate this legislative session.

Read Gov. Tomblin’s prepared remarks here. 

“Education in West Virginia must change,” Tomblin told lawmakers in the House Chamber, “And that change begins now.”

One of more controversial proposals is a plan to hold schools, principals and teachers more accountable for student achievement.  Teacher union leaders counter that it’s difficult to accurately measure teacher performance.

Tomblin has no plans for a teacher pay raise, and some education reformers want future raises to be tied to education outcomes.  Tomblin stayed away from that controversial issue, and will not propose a merit pay plan.

The Governor also wants to loosen the rules for teacher hiring, which he says place too much emphasis on seniority.

“Current hiring practices in our State do not guarantee the best teacher is the one actually hired for the job,” Tomblin said.  “In fact, in many cases it prevents otherwise good teachers even from qualifying for the job.”

That sets up a potential clash with the teacher unions.  They worry that de-emphasizing seniority will lead to favoritism in hiring.  However, both Tomblin and teacher groups agree the state has a major problem in trying to fill all classrooms with certified teachers.

Under the Tomblin plan, some of the vacancies could be filled by incentivizing teachers through loan forgiveness programs and by allowing professionals with other qualifications to enter the classroom.

And Tomblin tackled the thorny issue of the number of instructional days, saying the overly restrictive school calendar works against classroom time.

“As an example of the type of things we need to change in our Code, under current law, a snow day counts as an instructional day,” Tomblin said.  “We need to get back to a place of common sense education.”

Tomblin says he’s not going to push county school systems to adopt a version of year-round school called a “balanced calendar,” but he does want to free school systems to have that option.

Another part of the plan calls for a greater emphasis on reading for young students by ensuring that every elementary teacher is “specially trained in reading.”  The goal is to make sure “every child can read at grade level by the end of the third grade,” Tomblin said.

Additionally, Tomblin wants to expand the 4-year-old kindergarten program to all counties.  Currently, only two out of three eligible students attend preschool.

The Governor believes one of the ways to accomplish these and other reforms is to shift more of the power for running the schools from Charleston to local school systems, a move recommend by a comprehensive audit of the public education system last year.

Tomblin used the audit and recommendations from the state Board of Education as guides for his reforms.  The audit found, and the Board agreed, that West Virginia has one of the most bureaucratic school systems in the country, causing the school system to be inefficient and ineffective.

A clash over the audit led to the Board’s firing of Jorea Marple as the state Superintendent of Schools.

While education dominated the State of the State address, Tomblin also:

–Presented to the Legislature a $4.6 billion balanced budget for next fiscal year with no new taxes.  That budget includes a 7.5 percent cut except in public education, Medicaid, the State Police and mine safety programs.

–Proposed a plan to reduce prison overcrowding by emphasizing substance abuse treatment for prisoners when they get out of jail.  Tomblin cited a study showing that could alleviate the need to build a new prison and save $116 million over the next six year.

–Announced a campaign with the message, “If you get high, you won’t get hired–drugs aren’t working.”  The campaign includes a website–faceyourfuturewv.com–where West Virginians who need help with substance abuse can find help.

–Proposed tougher regulations on natural gas pipelines. That is in response to an explosion of a major gas line near Sissonville last December that leveled several houses and left a section of I-77 charred.

–Promised to continue fighting the EPA and “its misguided attempts to cripple this (coal) industry.”





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