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CHARLESTON -- As members of the West Virginia Legislature gathered at the Capitol earlier this week for the first interim meetings of the year, lawmakers are looking to resume the special session on education betterment called by Gov. Jim Justice last month.
Prior to the start of the April 30 organizational meetings, several lawmakers attended the West Virginia Board of Education's Committee on School Finance and Funding.
The committee has shifted its focus to several of the funding and school aid formula proposals in the now-defunct Senate Bill 451. Proposals being looked at include funding smaller counties at a minimum of 1,400 students, freezing levy rates at 2015 levels and education savings accounts.
Lawmakers on the committee include Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, House Finance Committee Chairman Eric Householder, R-Berkeley, Senate Minority Leader Roman Prezioso, D-Marion, and Delegate Jason Barrett, D-Berkeley.
Staff with the state Department of Education are preparing a report for lawmakers and the governor based on the data collected from eight regional roundtable discussions held between March and April, and the results from an online survey.
According to the department, more than 100 delegates and senators attended the forums across the state. The report and survey results will be released later this month and made available to the public.
"We chartered the Senate to go out and listen to all the education forums," said Senate President Mitch Carmichael, R-Jackson. "As one goes to those events, we certainly are waiting on the report, but there were common themes throughout that."
Last week, Carmichael and House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, met with Justice to discuss possible agenda items for the special session, which started shortly after the Legislature finished the 2019 regular session March 9. Those conversations continued Tuesday with plans to call lawmakers back into session during the May 20-21 legislative interim meetings.
"(Carmichael) and I were just talking earlier today about how far along we are in the process of getting some of these ideas developed into bill format," Hanshaw said. "Some of the things that came out of the eight Department of Education forums are great ideas, but they're ideas. They're not bills yet. There is no reason to convene the Legislature until we have bills ready for it to consider."
While leaders are waiting on the Department of Education report, both Carmichael and Hanshaw said there were many areas of agreement on which lawmakers can begin work.
The House is taking a look at legislation eliminating outdated sections of code. The Senate is taking a look at ways to financially help counties.
"We are compiling a list of everything that is antiquated and no longer relevant," Hanshaw said. "One of the things we'll be doing during the session is a repeal of the antiquated and outdated things that are just not relevant."
There is agreement on many of the core sentiments, including wrap-around services such as more counselors and nurses to help children affected by the opioid crisis. Justice, speaking at a press conference Thursday, said his conversations with Carmichael and Hanshaw have been productive and that there is much agreement on what could be on a special session agenda.
"I think we agree on the overwhelming majority of things. We get along great and we talk," Justice said. "There are things in education that we absolutely need to do better."
Justice called a special session after his bill giving teachers and school service personnel a 5 percent pay raise died, as did SB 451, the education omnibus bill that contained several parts. Proposals in SB 451 included tax breaks for teachers and staff, incentive pay for high-need subjects, additional funding for counselors and nurses, incentives to curb teacher absences, open enrollment, teacher input on student promotion and the teacher and staff pay raise.
Causing the most controversy in SB 451 were proposals for public charter schools and education savings accounts.
Education savings accounts allow parents to use the equivalent of the per-pupil expenditures for their children and use that money for private school, tutoring, and other educational expenses.
Charter schools are public schools that receive state funding, but are free from many of the regulations regular public schools follow. Charter schools are often used to try new educational approaches.
According to the Libertarian Reason Foundation, enrollment in charter schools has nearly tripled, with 3.2 million students enrolled in charters nationwide as of 2017.
According to the Alliance for Public Charter Schools, 43 states and Washington, D.C., allow for charter schools. Of that number, 35 states have 2 percent of their student population in charters though these tend to be in urban areas.
The original Senate version of the bill included a full charter school program and education savings accounts.
It remains to be seen if education savings accounts will be on the special session agenda, but a compromise charter school pilot could be a reality.
"I personally believe that trying two or three pilot charter schools is a good thing," Justice said. "But surely we're not going to lay on my desk education savings accounts."
"One of the things we get mischaracterized in the Senate is that we're unwilling or dogmatic," Carmichael said. "We're making progress. Any objective observer can see the Senate has compromised and been willing to accommodate the fears of so many other people who are invested in the status quo."
"Both houses passed some version of a charter school program," Hanshaw said. "If we learned anything during the regular session, it's that term 'charter school' means something different depending on who you talk to. We're still talking about what the actual goal is that we want to accomplish."
Lawmakers adjourned until a later date as determined by Carmichael and Hanshaw to give legislators time to return to their districts and get feedback on education reform and participate in the Department of Education forums. It also provided lawmakers a cooling-off period after the drama of SB 451.
But Carmichael said the special session is not going to be a repeat.
"We are very intent on new and innovative ideas that could be coming forth in a new education package that incentivizes student success," Carmichael said. "New ideas that will provide enhanced local control."
(Adams can be contacted at sadams@newsandsentinel.com)