Once Held Hostage By Teachers’ Unions, West Virginia Just Passed The Nation’s Broadest School Choice

[corbe]

Once Held Hostage By Teachers’ Unions, West Virginia Just Passed The Nation’s Broadest School Choice Law

By Jayme Metzgar
MARCH 25, 2021

In February 2018, public school teachers brought West Virginia to its knees. Seeking pay raises and better health plans, unions had declared a “work stoppage” in all 55 counties, shuttering every public school in the state. The “stoppage” — which was in fact an unlawful strike — dragged on for nine school days, costing children nearly two weeks of instruction. Under pressure, the Republican legislature rushed through a pay raise to pacify the unions.

The victorious teachers of West Virginia quickly became the darlings of the socialist left. Jacobin magazine, which had extensively covered the strike, ran a victory-lap interview entitled “What the Teachers Won.” News coverage touched off copycat strikes, beginning in Arizona and spreading to other states. The “Red for Ed” movement was born, uniting unions, socialists, and other far-left radicals in dreams of an American labor renaissance.

Flush with victory, West Virginia teachers’ unions got bolder. The next year, they went on strike again, taking aim at broader education policy. The Republican Senate had passed a bill granting teachers their second pay raise in two years, but they tied it to something for parents: school choice.

<..snip..>

https://thefederalist.com/2021/03/25/once-held-hostage-by-teachers-unions-west-virginia-just-passed-sweeping-school-choice-legislation/

[PeteS in CA]

From the linked article:

... Last week, with very little noise or fanfare, the West Virginia legislature passed the most expansive Education Savings Account program in America. While ESAs in most states are only open to a small percentage of children, the new West Virginia Hope Scholarship will be available to 90 percent of schoolchildren in the state. Every child currently enrolled in public school is eligible, plus those newly aging in.

“It’s a game-changer,” says Garrett Ballengee of the Cardinal Institute for West Virginia Policy, a conservative think tank and proponent of the bill. “If you add up every single ESA utilizer in the rest of the country, there are only about 20,000 of them. The Hope Scholarship will automatically open it up to ten times that many children in West Virginia alone.”

Applicants for the Hope Scholarship will receive 100 percent of their state education dollars — $4,600 annually — in lieu of public schooling. (County and federal funds will remain in the system.) The scholarship is usable for private school tuition, homeschool curriculum, or other education expenses. Gov. Jim Justice, a vocal opponent of ESAs as recently as 2019, has signaled he’s likely to sign.

Assuming that's $4600 per student, that's moderately huge. For a homeschooling family, they'd have to get creatively extravagant to spend $4600 per student on curriculum, supplies, and education-related activities (speaking from over 15 years' experience). Even $4600 for the whole family would be between substantial and luxurious, depending on number of children.

[mountaineer]

Meanwhile, in nearby KY:

Corey A. DeAngelis
@DeAngelisCorey
BREAKING: Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear just announced he is vetoing a bill to fund students instead of systems.

He sent his own kids to private school.
1:37 PM · Mar 24, 2021

[Fishrrman]

West Virginia (and other states) can pass all the laws they want regarding "school choice", but eventually the DC communists are going to pass a "National Education Act" that over-rides all state laws and regulations to end "school choice", private schools that operate independently of the government, and home-schooling as well...

[mountaineer]

School Choice Is Coming to Union Stronghold West Virginia
School closures are the best thing to happen to educational choice.
Christian Barnard | 3.23.2021 2:30 PM

On March 18, the West Virginia Senate passed a landmark education bill to create the nation's largest education savings account (ESA) program, which would let parents withdraw their children from public schools and allow them to take the funds that would have been spent by the state and spend them on private school tuition, tutoring, or homeschooling expenses. The bill, which will most likely be signed by Gov. Jim Justice (R) later this week, would be a huge victory for school choice proponents and families who have become disillusioned with their residentially assigned public schools during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The program is required to be operational by no later than July 1, 2022 and is estimated to have an initial enrollment of 5,118 students receiving $4,600 each. For the first few years the program will only be available to students currently in public schools, but the bill will expand eligibility to current homeschool and private school students in 2026 if the cap on 5 percent of statewide public-school enrollment is not met. ...

Just a few years ago, the idea that a state like West Virginia could adopt such bold school choice reform would have sounded like a pipe dream. The state has a long political history of strong labor unions and, before 2019, was one of a small handful of states that still didn't allow for public charter schools. But the pandemic has changed everything: Widespread frustration with virtual learning and slow school reopenings has prompted lawmakers across the nation to introduce bills to fund students instead of institutions.  ...

REASON

[Cyber Liberty]

West Virginia (and other states) can pass all the laws they want regarding "school choice", but eventually the DC communists are going to pass a "National Education Act" that over-rides all state laws and regulations to end "school choice", private schools that operate independently of the government, and home-schooling as well...

Probably, but I'm not so sure about that. 

A smarter approach by the Lefties would be to open up funding for private schools, because the ability to fund, is the ability to call the shot about what gets dumped into the heads of children.  It would have the added benefit of allowing Rats to prance about as "Champions of the students and parents" by encouraging "school choice." 

It's not a real choice if all the private schools are controlled by the same bureaucracy as the publics.

[PeteS in CA]

Courtesy of USSC decisions such as Wisconsin v. Yoder and Pierce v Society of Sisters, Congress cannot successfully shut down private schools and homeschooling.

[mountaineer]

Florida and West Virginia are Putting Students First. Other States Should Follow Their Lead.
By Jason Huffman & Skylar Zander
March 29, 2021

The highest point in Florida is Britton Hill, 345 feet above sea level. In West Virginia, that would barely register as a bump in the road. Florida has some of the best beaches anywhere. West Virginia has some of the best whitewater rafting. It’s hard to imagine two states more different from one another. But the Sunshine State and the Mountain State have this in common: They are leading a transformation of K-12 education that can be a model for every state.

Legislators in Charleston and Tallahassee are on the verge of enacting education savings account legislation that would allow many more families to use their share of state per-pupil funding for a variety of educational experiences. ESAs typically can be used to pay for private schools, traditional public schools, charter schools, virtual schools, tutoring, textbooks, classes and programs provided or contracted by a school district, and other approved expenses.

Florida would be the largest state thus far to do so. West Virginia would be the smallest.

But our two states, so different geographically and demographically, share a commitment to the vision of funding students instead of systems. ...

Real Clear Education

[PeteS in CA]

Meanwhile, in nearby KY:

Legislators Override Kentucky Governor's Veto of School Choice Bill

https://reason.com/2021/03/30/legislators-override-kentucky-governors-veto-of-school-choice-bill/

Lawmakers in Kentucky successfully overrode Gov. Andy Beshear's veto of a school choice bill, opening several avenues for families in the state to pursue a better education for their children.

The new law, originally House Bill 563, allows students in Kentucky public schools to switch school districts, and it creates a new tax-advantaged education savings program for families to use for private school tuition, to pay for tutoring, or to cover other educational expenses. The most controversial part of the proposal was the creation of a $25 million scholarship fund—to be filled by donations from private businesses, for which they would receive state tax credits—that students in Kentucky's largest counties can tap to help pay for private school tuition.

[Cyber Liberty]

Legislators Override Kentucky Governor's Veto of School Choice Bill

https://reason.com/2021/03/30/legislators-override-kentucky-governors-veto-of-school-choice-bill/

@txradioguy

[txradioguy]

@txradioguy

Thank God for our deep red legislature in both houses and our Republican AG.  The only thing standing between Beshear and our Commonwealth looking like Virginia.