The director of public policy for Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s administration says everything in the governor’s education reform bill, introduced Monday to state lawmakers, is about helping the state’s students perform better.
The 179-page reform bill will first be taken up in the state Senate Education Committee after being introduced in both the state Senate and the state House of Delegates Monday, almost two weeks into the 2013 Regular Legislative Session.
In general, the bill includes proposals to:
• Make all-day preschool an option for 4-year-olds
• Offer state certification to teacher aides for younger students
• Start workforce preparation for students in middle school
• Clear the way for alternative teacher certification programs like Teach for America
• Provide loan forgiveness for those who teach in critical need areas
• Improve ongoing teacher development
• Give local school officials more flexibility to operate their systems.
Mason said the proposals are meant to work in concert with one another, the reason why all of the proposed reforms are part of one bill instead of being separated for consideration.
“The governor feels that we do have a gamut of issues that need to be addressed and it seems (like) to put it in front of the committees, all as one package, gives them the opportunity to understand how the different parts of the bill affect the other parts,” she said.
The bill removes the current section of state code that deals with the hiring of teachers and adds to another section of code regarding criteria used when hiring other professional employees in state government. The bill has removed seniority as a major factor in hiring.
West Virginia Education Association President Dale Lee is already highly critical of the bill. He said the seniority factor is misunderstood.
“We truly believe that the most qualified person should get the job and that’s what the current hiring practice says,” Lee said Monday. “The misconception out there is seniority is the deciding factor in the hiring practice. It’s not.”
Mason said the bill is a starting point.
“No bill is perfect, but we believe these (proposals) provide some great discussion points. We want to work with the Legislature. Folks have already brought additional ideas to us that might improve the bill,” she said.
“We’ve got 50 some days to work through, so we look forward to working with the Legislature.”
The 2013 Regular Legislative Session ends on Saturday, April 13.
