West Virginia public school teachers are striking over a new bill that paves the way for charter schools and private school vouchers in a state that relies primarily on public education.
In anticipation of the strike, almost all of the state's 55 public school systems have canceled classes for Tuesday.
The state's House of Delegates and Senate have been going back and forth on different versions of a bill that would overhaul West Virginia's educational system. According to the Charleston Gazette Mail, the education bill raises pay for teachers and increases funding for public schools, but also permits the creation of charter schools in the state, which currently has none.I wrote about last year's WV teacher's strike, which was mostly about teacher salaries, here. It appeared to end with a considerable victory for teachers, but a new bill before the West Virginia legislature could ultimately claw back some of that win for educators, especially over time and in rural districts.
Over at his education blog, Joshua Weishart of the University of West Virginia College of Law and Rockefeller School of Policy and Politics has written two posts, here and here. These provide a much more sophisticated, nuanced, and local perspective on the teacher's strike and the the proposed new law. This first post, now a few days old, focuses on population loss, rural schools, and the impact of the proposed new law on rural districts. In short, it would almost certainly lead to consolidation over the medium-term and generally undermine the health of West Virginia's rural communities and rural schools.
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