CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The incoming chairwoman of the state Senate Education Committee says her passion for education is what led her to first run for political office in 2016.
“I really feel it’s the first and most inherent duty that we have is to educate our citizens and get them prepared for life,” Sen. Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, said. “It’s something I just feel West Virginia is lagging behind, and I’m just really, passionately want to help.”
Senate President Mitch Carmichael, R-Jackson, announced Rucker as the next committee chairwoman earlier this month. Rucker said while there are successful programs and schools in the state, the success is not evenly distributed across West Virginia.
“One of my priorities is to give teachers a voice. The teachers are the ones who are on the front lines. They are there with the students. They know what is working, and they know what is not working,” she said on MetroNews “Talkline.”
“I believe one of the failures we have had is we have not given them enough of a voice.”
Looking back on this year’s education work stoppage, Rucker said a common issue she heard during the protests was low wages.
“We need to look at competitive wages, but that means we really need to look at locality pay. It’s one of the few things I have run on that I have not been able to make any headway,” she said.
“A salary should be based on competition. Where we are in the Eastern Panhandle, we’re in a position where we have to compete with Maryland and Virginia, where both are paying substantially higher than what we are paying in West Virginia.”
Rucker supports Gov. Jim Justice’s proposal of providing state employees with a five percent pay raise, but there also needs to be local efforts to increase pay.
“Which means allowing the localities to determine what that pay should be,” she added.
Rucker’s appointment has drawn concerns from state education groups; leaders with the West Virginia Education Association and AFT-West Virginia have voiced their issues with Rucker’s support of homeschooling and position on vaccine requirements.
Rucker homeschooled her five children, although previously served two years as an educator in the Montgomery County Public Schools system in Maryland. As a lawmaker, she has supported multiple bills that would have allowed more exemptions to vaccine requirements.
“I just needed to be able to do what was best for my kids, which meant having to homeschool them and drive them to their different therapies and doctors and issues that they had,” she had regarding her homeschooling work.
Rucker also said she was not sure, if she had young children, she would send them to public schools.
“It’s hard to say since it’s been so long since I’ve been into the public schools here, but I can tell you I know a lot of really wonderful people,” she said. “I probably would consider it, for sure.”
Regarding her position on vaccine requirements, she said parents know what is best for their children.
“When you know that over $6 billion has been given out to the vaccine injury court to people who have had reactions to vaccines and that there are people who do have reactions to vaccines, and there is no way to know whether or not you will be one of the unfortunate ones, I don’t think you can make the statement that it’s just 100 percent safe,” Rucker said of vaccines.
The “vaccine injury court” is often used to describe the Office of Special Masters of the United States Court of Special Claims, which handles petitions in which individuals seek monetary compensations related to injuries and deaths caused by vaccines.
It was established in 1986 following lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers and health care providers in order to ensure stable costs and an adequate supply of vaccines.
The legislative session begins Jan. 9.