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Updates: Education betterment session resumes in WV House

By Brad McElhinny 
Teachers and supporters gather outside the House of Delegates chamber during consideration of education bills.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A special session on education betterment was resuming today in the House of Delegates.

Stream here for audio of the select committees.

Updates here:

7:19 p.m. Here were House Speaker Roger Hanshaw’s remarks after the Monday evening floor session. He gets into the rationale behind the House doing its own omnibus bill.

7:08 p.m. The House is adjourning until 1 p.m. Tuesday. There are some Tuesday morning committee meetings, although not any of the select education committees.

There is also an 8 a.m. Wednesday public hearing on the new omnibus education bill.

6:08 p.m. The House floor session is reconvening. Bills, including a new version of an education omnibus bill, will be reported to the floor.

House now dealing with the bills that were passed out of Select Committee B. Also, it is loud with somebody chanting outside the chamber. Some of these bills are being referred to the Finance Committee.

Next, motion for all bills from Select Committee A be taken up for immediate consideration and read a first time. That gets the go-ahead.

As the bill from Committee C comes up, Delegate Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, moves that #NewOmnibus be referred to the education committee. This is also to reject the Committee C report.

Hornbuckle’s motion is defeated.

Then the new omnibus bill is read a first time. Should be on amendment stage on Tuesday.

House Bill 134, a standalone teacher payraise bill, is among those being read a first time tonight:

3:35 p.m. Anyhow, President Donald Trump weighed in on all of this.

1:32 p.m.  passes out of Committee C, 14-8

Also, colleague David Beard was covering Committee B, which considered and passed a bunch of bills, but adjourned without taking action on education savings accounts.

1:16 p.m. No proposed amendments on in Committee C. Now preparing to vote to move the bill to the full House.

Most of the discussion in Committee C has been about charter schools. Delegate Linda Longstreth, D-Marion, making a speech against the charters aspect.

“We’d better get back in the public schools and see what the issues are and start dealing with the public schools.”

Delegate Cindy Lavender Bowe, D-Greenbrier, says the focus should have been on more student support services.

Lavender Bowe: “I am opposed to this bill. I will vote against it here and on the floor.”

Delegate Terry Waxman, R-Harrison, says the bill provides significant monetary support for West Virginia schools. Plus: “The freedom that is offered by this bill is valuable to all the students in West Virginia.”

Then there’s talk about the omnibus approach.

Longstreth, speaking again, acknowledges that the bill includes good things such as pay raises for teachers and wraparound services, but objects to the omnibus.

Longstreth: “I think it should have been broken down. I thought that’s why we came to Charleston, to vote on individual bills.”

Delegate Amanda Estep-Burton: “I too was shocked to be considering another omnibus bill.”

12:47 p.m. Here was the roll call from the floor vote way earlier today on tabling the omnibus bill. This vote was actually on a motion to table the motion to table. So yes means to continue consideration and no means to kill it.

It was 53-44 with three absences.

11:56 a.m. Here is a look at the differences between the House Subcommittee C omnibus and the Senate omnibus:



Education Reform C Originating Bill Proposal (Text)

11:30 a.m. House Speaker Roger Hanshaw appears on MetroNews’ “Talkline” to provide an overview of education betterment.

11:17 a.m. On Select Committee C, discussing #NewOmnibus, Delegate Longstreth, D-Marion: “Is there a fiscal note, or are we going to get a fiscal note, of the cost of implementing even one charter school?”

I’m not sure there was a clear answer to this question.

Majority Leader Summers, R-Taylor, asks for clarification that if a county board doesn’t want a charter then it just wouldn’t be approved for that county. Yes, she is told, that’s the case.

This bill has a limit of 10 charter schools.

Delegate Longstreth is now asking if there’s a provision allowing the state school board to establish a charter school.

Then, circling back on Longstreth question about the cost of starting up a charter school: funding follows the child to the charter school. Another aspect of the answer is — no cost to state on facility. That leaves open how the charter gets and pays for a facility for the school. But what they’re saying is the state wouldn’t have a facilities cost.

“I believe the answer to your question is zero” is the answer Longstreth receives.

11 a.m. The leaders of the American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia and the West Virginia Education Association appear on MetroNews’ “Talkline.”

10:31 a.m. You can listen to the select committees here.

Select Committee C is starting to talk about an originating bill that is similar to the Senate’s omnibus bill.

If I understand right, this amendment proposed by Delegate Paul Espinosa, R-Jefferson, is the same as what’s being discussed in Select Committee C.

Delegate Amanda Estep-Burton, D-Kanawha, asks why the committee doesn’t have the Senate bill.

Estep-Burton: “Why is there a House version of the omnibus?” She wonders why not individual bills. “I’m sorry. I was caught off guard by this omnibus bill here. I was expecting the Senate version.”

Chairman Espinosa: “It was the thinking of our education leadership team to start anew.”

10:06 a.m. It me

9:18 a.m. There’s a motion for the House to recess until 6 p.m. but the Select Committees are meeting in the mean time.

Delegate Bates addresses the House: “Under Senator Carmichael’s leadership and Governor Justice’s lack of it, betterment has become an embarrassment.”

9:14 a.m. Delegate Caputo, D-Marion, moves to adjourn sine die.

The vote is 41 ayes, 56 nays, so his motion is rejected.

9:11 a.m. Delegate Bates, D-Raleigh, is moving to refuse to consider the Senate’s omnibus education bill.

Majority Leader Summers moves to table the Bates motion.

Parliamentary procedure! Delegates were voting on Summers’ motion.

The vote is 53 ayes 44 nayes so the omnibus bill is not tabled.

The ESA bill, by the way, was referred to Select Committee B

8:50 a.m. The House of Delegates floor session has begun. A lot of bills will be under consideration by the four special committees. Some just rolled into the system today.

Select Committee B has 12 bills before it right now. The three other select committees have 14 bills apiece at this point.

8:33 a.m. The leaders of West Virginia’s three big education unions started the day off with a press conference to express their concerns about an omnibus education bill passed over from the state Senate.





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