The Senate Education chairwoman is not a fan of legislation that would give the Legislature ultimate say-so over state Board of Education policies.
Senator Amy Nichole Grady, R-Mason, noted that three years ago, West Virginians rejected a constitutional amendment that would have given the Legislature authority to review and approve the state Board of Education’s rules and policies.
The proposed amendment on the November 2022 ballot was defeated by a 58%-42% vote. That vote of the citizens left the board’s current constitutional authority intact.
“I was in favor of that constitutional amendment when it was on the ballot. The voters voted that down. The reasons they voted it down are their reasons,” Grady said in a short interview after a Senate floor session this week.
“So I am against this bill for that reason. I feel like it circumvents the process of which we put it in front of the voters, and I think it sends the wrong message. It tells the voters that ‘Hey, we think you got it wrong, and we want to do it our way.’ So I’m not in favor of the bill for that reason.”
Nevertheless, SB705, which was reviewed by the Judiciary Committee last week, is on track for a passage vote in the Senate as soon as Wednesday.
The House of Delegates already passed its own version of the bill, HB 2755, last week. So for the policy to become law, legislators would need to align the two bills prior to the regular session’s conclusion in less than three weeks.
The Senate bill in the spotlight right now emphasizes the Legislature’s ultimate authority over educational rules, mandating that newly created rules be submitted for legislative review, approval, amendment or rejection.
Specifically, the bill would require the state Board of Education to submit newly promulgated rules to the Legislature through the Legislative Rule-Making Review Committee.
Who has the authority is an important question at a moment when the U.S. Department of Education is on track for dismantling. Both influence and money could be redistributed during that process.
“I think a lot of legislators and outside people who are influencing legislators feel like there will be a windfall of money coming down to the states,” said Paul Hardesty, a state school board member from Logan County.
“And I think this is just another attempt for them to control the dollars in every aspect of education when in fact there’s caselaw and our own West Virginia Constitution says otherwise.”
The state Board of Education includes 9 citizen members appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the state Senate. Board members serve overlapping terms of nine years, and no more than five citizen members may belong to the same political party.
When the Legislature passes laws dealing with education, the state board and state Department of Education produce rules for how to comply with the law. In other words, the law is the broad picture and the regulations fill in the detail. Typically, legislators are looped in during that process.
The state board’s authority is laid out in the state Constitution’s Article XII, which the state Supreme Court has upheld in multiple instances. “The general supervision of the free schools of the State shall be vested in the West Virginia board of education which shall perform such duties as may be prescribed by law.”
“There is a distinct reason that changes to the West Virginia Constitution must be approved by the voters of West Virginia in a very detailed and described manner,” Hardesty said.
“This legislature cannot accept the outcome of that very issue that went before the voters in 2022. This bill, and its companion bill in the House, are an attempt to circumvent the will of the voters.”
Hardesty, a former state senator, said he hopes his former colleagues will reject the proposed legislation.
“I’m totally opposed to that bill,” Hardesty said in an interview at the Capitol. “I wish that bill would have a footnote or an abstract at the bottom that says the legislative intent is to circumvent the will of the voters in West Virginia.
“This issue was addressed via constitutional amendment a couple of years ago. It was soundly defeated by the voters of West Virginia. This is just another backhanded attempt by the Legislature to circumvent the will of the voter.”