A member of a bipartisan legislative panel, charged with working through the details of the Governor’s Education Efficiency Audit in the New Year, says West Virginia’s leaders have an opportunity to make real changes for the better in education.
“It would be the intent of the committee to definitely make a positive impact,” Fayette County Delegate Dave Perry, a longtime school principal, says.
Delegate Perry, a Democrat with more than 30 years of education experience, is one of nine delegates on the bipartisan panel House Speaker Rick Thompson has formed. The Speaker says the state’s education system is “on the brink of an overhaul.”
In the year that has passed since the education audit was first released, those with the West Virginia Board of Education, the West Virginia America Federation of Teachers, the West Virginia Education Association, Vision Shared and many others have weighed in on its more than recommendations.
Delegate Perry says the next step for lawmakers is to prioritize the short term and long term recommendations within the audit. One of its key findings was that West Virginia has one of the most top heavy education systems in the entire country.
In general, Perry says it shows lawmakers need to move more decisions out of the Capitol City. “There’s been too much centralization of power in Charleston and it needs to be centralized down to the school level,” he said.
The other Democrat members of the House bipartisan panel are Preston County Delegate Larry Williams, Hancock County Delegate Randy Swartzmiller, Cabell County Delegate Doug Reynolds and Randolph County Delegate Denise Campbell.
The Republican members of the group are Wood County Delegate Bill Anderson, Morgan County Delegate Daryl Cowles, Monongalia County Delegate Amanda Pasdon and Kanawha County Delegate Eric Nelson.
The 2013 Regular Legislative opens on Wednesday, February 13th at the State Capitol.