Education: Lawmakers must do more to help schools
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Most West Virginia public schools are making slow improvement in the categories that put 49 of 55 counties "on watch" last year. Despite that, there are still 41 "on watch" for not meeting one or more in a long list of standards
"We're charged as a state with providing a thorough and efficient education to our West Virginia children," said Alexandra Criner, director of the Office of Accountability.
But meeting that charge has been an excruciatingly slow process in a state dogged by chronic attendance problems, challenges to operational effectiveness, staffing shortages, pandemics, natural disasters and an infuriating cultural tendency to devalue formal education. (In fact, for some politicians, an infuriating intention to derail and drive backward the educational process for our kids).
Our schools are being asked to fill gaps for students that could not have been imagined a few decades ago. The more we ask them to become physical and mental health clinics, clothes closets, food pantries, community centers and safe harbors for kids who might not find one anywhere else, the harder it is for them to quickly bring performance up to the standards we rightly expect.
For some, the solution is simple: more money. Referring to some of the money used to help fund a 2% personal income tax rate reduction, Micky Blackwell, executive director of the West Virginia Association of Principals, said "If they take that $20 million and put it into schools, put it into administrators, put it into counselors, we would be serving the children of West Virginia who are going to grow up to be our future taxpayers. So please, let's all get together. ... let's start making plans now to be as supportive of our principals, be as supportive of each other, and support our legislators to help them see what our schools need."
Maybe. But lawmakers must also be focusing on doing the work to lift our communities. To bring jobs and hope to families who DO rely on the schools for much more than educating their children. Focus on making the changes that could give a hand up to the 285,780 Mountain State residents (70,000 of whom are children) the U.S. Census Bureau says were living in poverty last year. Create an attractive, diversified and expanding, forward-looking economy that helps communities alleviate the challenges our schools are addressing.
And then, support the schools in providing an education that lifts us out of the bottom ranks of every survey and report.
On their own, they're making progress, but it seems to be despite the efforts of some lawmakers, rather than with their help. On that front, anyway, Blackwell has the right idea. Imagine the possibilities if ALL lawmakers took a holistic approach to serving our children's best interests, rather than their own agendas.