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The time is now! Public education has been under attack for too long from too many people. Many of the past actions of the legislature haven’t been in the best interests of our students or public education. It’s time to hold legislators accountable for their decision-making as the legislative session is scheduled to begin on February 12, 2025.

The loss of vital funding through school vouchers, out of control healthcare costs and benefit reductions, and lack of support and resources for student behavior issues are only a few of the challenges damaging our abilities to properly educate and care for our students. All these issues can be improved with the proper actions of the legislature if we stand up for ourselves and the students of West Virginia.

Use the talking points below as you speak with your elected officials. Let them know we can’t allow the attacks on our profession and our students’ education to continue. The time is now to fix these broken parts of our education system!

Public schools funding and support

• Investing in public education excellence is the path to thriving communities, a stable economy, and successful students. Each child in West Virginia has a right to an excellent public education. Every child, regardless of zip code or socio-economic status, deserves access to a full curriculum, art and music classes, technical opportunities, and a safe, clean, stable environment. All children must be given a level chance to succeed. Our school employees are committed to their students and go above and beyond to ensure that our children achieve their full potential.
• Without highly qualified committed employees in our school system, student achievement will be compromised. The number of certified teachers in West Virginia continues to plummet. We must work to ensure the retention of our current employees and work to make sure careers in public education are desirable so we can adequately fill vacancies in our systems. We must make teaching a respected and valued profession if we are to provide highly trained employees in our schools. Improving the working conditions of teachers and ensuring well-funded classrooms allows teachers to focus on doing the important work of educating the next generation.
• The problems of society greatly impact our students and those issues impact student achievement. We must provide our students with adequate resources to assist with mental health and trauma.
• Research has shown what is needed to improve student achievement: smaller class size, greater student support, wrap-around programs, and parent resources have proven vital to increasing achievement.
• Every dollar that goes to unaccountable private schools and voucher programs is a dollar that won’t be available to fund public education. The current Hope Scholarship program is devoid of accountability or oversight of private and religious schools that would ensure they’re following any standards or curriculum.
• Programs that entice parents to remove their children from public schools also take much needed resources away from our schools and the students that remain. We must ensure that funding for public schools does not decline. We need to increase funding to make sure all students thrive.

Student discipline

Increasingly, students are affected by trauma, poverty, unstable situations at home and are acting out more often and more aggressively in schools. We must find better ways to handle these situations and provide additional support for classroom teachers. In order to keep our students and staff safe, we must:

• Implement proven strategies to improve student behaviors such as funding smaller class sizes, increasing access to wrap-around programs, and increasing student access to counseling and social-emotional support.
• Invest in school-based resources and personnel to assist classroom teachers with disruptive students.
• Create a discipline review committee at each school to annually review the school’s discipline plan and give them the power to make changes when that plan is not working.
• Require a “consequence” section for each behavior plan that would outline progressive discipline for students who have IEPs.
• Increase access to more alternative education settings beginning with Pre-K.
• Find and create programs to support the mental health needs of teachers to reduce burnout.

Salary increases are critical for public education in WV

• The number of vacancies in our school systems continues to increase. From classroom teachers to aides to bus operators, significant salary increases are imperative to provide a high-quality education for our students.
• Token raises that don’t keep up with inflation, or that are recycled just to pay for PEIA premiums, will not fix our long-term crisis of vacancies and will do nothing to attract or retain employees.
• Even with the pay raises passed by the legislature in recent years, our employees’ salaries have not kept up with other states. National rankings list West Virginia teachers as last in the nation in compensation. Our education employees’ salaries are far below their peers in all our surrounding states.
• Adequate compensation not only recognizes the dedication of educators but also attracts and retains the high-quality employees our state desperately needs and is losing to neighboring states who all pay substantially more than West Virginia. Our employee crisis can be seen across all counties and exists in all teaching areas and service categories.
• At a time when education employees are reporting an all-time low in job satisfaction, improved salaries can enhance morale, reduce turnover, and ultimately benefit students by ensuring a stable and motivated education environment. These problems will only continue to increase the longer salaries are not made the highest priority by the legislature.

PEIA

• The compensation package is a huge factor in employment decisions. Without stable, affordable health care, an individual’s compensation level falls as they bear the burden of increased out-of-pocket expenses.
• In the past three (3) years, employees have seen a 49% increase in premiums, an added spousal surcharge, and now face a 40% increase in deductibles and out-of-pocket costs. This factors into the recruitment and retention of employees. Currently, we have shortages in teaching positions, bus operators, cooks, aides, and substitutes. Passing plan costs to plan participants must stop.
• While we have seen salary increases, these were simply to offset the PEIA premium increases and are simply a shell game. Despite these salary increases, West Virginia has dropped to last in the nation in pay, and the disparity with our contiguous states continues to grow.
• We need to reduce the hard line on the 80/20 premium split and change it to: “The state shall pay no less than 80% and employees shall pay no more than 20%.” This will not only allow the state to add money to the plan without employees being required to contribute each time, but will also give the PEIA Finance Board flexibility in addressing the increased costs to the plan.
• Suggestions to privatize the plan is popular among legislators with the goal of ultimately getting the state out of the insurance business. PEIA is a unique plan with many unique features that benefit plan participants (i.e. tiered premiums based upon salary; balanced billing prohibitions). Privatizing the plan would increase premiums and/or out-of-pocket expenses.
• PEIA cost increases must be shared by providers, the state and plan participants. Plan participants have been hit with the majority of increases in order to balance the plan.
• PEIA plan participants, especially retirees, must get relief from the escalating costs of PEIA.

Retirees

• Retirees are living longer but do not receive a cost of living increase. West Virginia must continue to follow the needed funding requirements in order to fully fund the Teachers Retirement System (TRS). By doing so, participants can see guaranteed optimum benefits, including a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) in the future.
• Increase the monthly minimum pension for retirees with more than 20 years of service.
• Provide adequate funding to offset projected PEIA premium increases for retirees. Control PEIA prescription drug and health care costs.

Income tax

• Public services, including funding public schools, are more important than tax cuts. Roads, police, senior services, schools, first responders and more are at risk if the state’s revenue is not adequate to support them.
• Expensive tax cuts enacted by the legislature will hurt the state over time, costing nearly $818 million per year with triggers that seek to eventually eliminate the personal income tax entirely, at an annual cost of over $2 billion, or about 40% of the state’s general revenue budget. Personal income tax is the state’s single largest source of general revenue. This revenue must be replaced, or programs and services will be severely cut.
• Income tax cuts typically benefit wealthy individuals. An income tax reduction would continue to shift the tax burden from the highest earners to working West Virginians. By FY 2028, West Virginia’s tax cuts will cost an estimated 10.5% of the total general revenue budget. SB 2033, passed during a special legislative session earlier this fall and reduces the state’s personal income tax rate by an additional 2%.
• Other states have gone down the path of reducing income tax, and it has proven disastrous for their state’s economy, resulting in cuts to public services, lost jobs, and decreased funding for public schools.