A vote will not come till next week on Governor Earl Ray Tomblin’s proposed education reform bill as discussions continue over the weekend.
The state Senate Education Committee was expected to vote on the bill Thursday evening, but it didn’t happen.
Committee Chairman Bob Plymale said talks are progressing, but their are still issues to work out.
“I think we have worked with the majority of them and we are getting pretty close to some consensus , but we are not there yet,” said Plymale.
Plymale added that the Governor put together a good bill, but some legitimate issues have been brought up by the teachers union which they intend to address individually.
West Virginia American Federation of Teachers President Judy Hale said they like the direction the bill is heading.
“We are very optimistic at this point that we are going to get a bill that is good for children and fair to employees,” said Hale.
The bill was not perfect, however, and the AFT has been making several suggestions for areas of improvement.
For one, Hale said the bill at first included hiring practices that they felt were too unequal.
“In the first section, which was used for new employees, you could weight that criteria anyway you wanted to,” said Hale. “Which meant seniority could be weighted at one point and other things could be weighted at 98 points.”
After going back to the drawing board, Hale believes they now have language they can deal with.
“We think we are pretty close to having the hiring criteria equally weighted and we wanted to be subjective, and I think we are pretty close on that,” said Hale.
Another issue regarded working with the organization Teach For America, which the AFT is very much opposed to. They suggested removing that from the bill.
But Hale said one of her biggest disappointments with the bill will come out of not dealing with the top heaviness within the education system.
“Not just in the state Department of Education but in many county boards of education. It’s not in the bill and I don’t think it’s going to get in the bill,” said Hale. “I’m not sure if the Legislature has figured out a way on how to deal with that problem.”
But the discussions are far from over as all parties are expected to discuss the bill over the weekend during several meetings.
Hale hopes that if they can come up with a bill that passes the Senate Finance Committee, then the House of Delegates will do the same so the process can be completed.
The bill is expected to be voted on Tuesday.
