CHARLESTON – The House of Delegates assembled Wednesday morning – the third day of this week’s resumption of the special session – for a 12-plus hour floor session to handle a long list of education and appropriations bills, including HB 206, the omnibus, which generated nine hours of debate on amendments and the bill itself.
Those nine hours on HB 206 led to the adoption of 15 amendments, the rejection of two aimed at removing charter schools from the bill, and the not-unexpected passage by a 51-47 vote.
After it passed, the House adjourned until such time as the speaker calls them back. Delegate Patrick McGeehan, R-Hancock, attempted to adjourn sine die, ending the special session for the House, but members learned that that move would preclude them from responding to any Senate changes to the various bills, and his motion failed.
Two education-related bills on the agenda died before the session began.
Before the floor session, the Rules Committee – consisting of leaders of both parties – met and moved the two bills off of the active calendar to the inactive calendar where they died.
One of those was HB 168, a bill to offer tax credits for donations private school scholarship organizations and public school foundations, districts and education improvement grant organizations. It was on second reading and open to amendment.
The bill had narrowly passed out of House Finance on Tuesday, in a 12-11 vote with two Republicans defecting. Opponents objected to diverting public funds to private schools, and some flaws in the bill that prevented money going to public schools within a 10-mile radius of an eligible private school and that overlooked civil rights protections for LGBTQ students.
It appeared, delegates and witnesses said, that the errors were brought over from a model Oklahoma bill and never caught. They could have been amended out, but hallway talk suggested that the bill simply lacked support for passage.
Also moved to the inactive calendar was HB 134, a Democrat-sponsored pay raise bill for teachers and service personnel.
As the floor session began, House Finance minority chair Mick Bates, D-Raleigh, asked Majority Leader Amy Summers, R-Taylor, to read the names of the bills so the public would know which bills were effectively dead. She complied and confirmed they wouldn’t be taken up during the floor session.
With those gone, the bill on the minds of the crowds in the galleries and chanting outside the chamber was HB 206, the education reform omnibus bill, with about 26 amendments pending, sitting at the bottom of the calendar of bills on third reading for passage, with 20 bills before it — many also awaiting amendment.
Here are highlights of the action on the omnibus bill, HB 206.
— Delegate Mike Pushkin offered an amendment to strike charter schools and adjust the Special Community Development School Pilot program to address student performance at thee selected elementary schools. “Let’s see what we can do with these children who need the most help.” Failed, 42-55.
— Members approved an amendment by Delegate Ruth Rowan, R-Hampshire, to eliminate the option to allow the schools for the deaf and blind to apply to become a charter school. She said this would hurt funding. They also approved one by Education chair Paul Espinosa, R-Jefferson, to allow local school improvement to participate in creation of innovation schools.
— Delegate Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, offered an amendment to re-instate a sales tax holiday weekend. A bill to that effect never saw a Finance Committee agenda. After Delegate Joe Ellington, R-Mercer, said that retailers wouldn’t be able to gear up their software in time for August, Hornbuckle tweaked it to have it take effect in Fiscal Year 2021. But the code section was wrong so it was moved to the foot of the amendments to get that fixed. With it repaired, it passed 93-4.
— Delegate Mark Dean, R-Mingo and a school principal, offered an amendment to adjust the school aid formula to allow for about 85 more kindergarten aides. Finance chair Eric Householder, R-Berkeley, objected to the cost, $6.1 million. Others rose to support it because the aides are needed in the classrooms. It passed in a squeaker, 49-48.
— Delegate Cody Thompson, D-Randolph, offered an amendment to restrict the bill’s unlimited re-posting for classroom teacher openings in order to seek more qualified applicants to a single re-posting if fewer than three people apply after the first posting. The bill strikes the current law that an opening may be re-posted once if fewer than three people apply, and the amendment restores existing law.
Supporters of the amendment see it as a way to avoid head-hunting and passing over qualified people who applied. Thompson said “It’s to keep the good-old-boy network keeping people from working.”
It failed 42-55.
— Another Thompson amendment would provide a $2,000 cost-of-living annual increase to retired teachers and service personnel. A bill to this effect passed out of Education B but wasn’t taken up in Finance. Householder said it violates 2005 pension reform legislation that prohibits adjustments until the pension plan unfunded liability is paid off in 2034, and would cost about $600 million. It failed 43-53.
— Dean offered an amendment to subject a county school board proposal to charter a school to a public county referendum. It failed 42-55.
–– And another Dean amendment would prohibit county school boards from authorizing charters until all current board seats have been up for election or re-election. Charter school opponents tried to stress that these measure offer local control, putting the decisions in the hands of the people. It failed 45-52.
— Espinosa offered what’s nicknamed his 3-3-3 amendment and worked out in consultation with the Senate and governor. It limits charters to three pilots until July 1, 2023, with regular reports to the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability, and starting July 1, 2023, allowing authorization of an additional three charters every three years. Adopted 51-44.
–– Delegate Brandon Steele, R-Raleigh, in a procedural move, had another Dean amendment moved to the top of the remaining list. It wipes out all references to charter schools. Espinosa said it would end any chance of reaching agreement with the Senate.
The led to just shy of 90 minutes of debate and speeches on the merits of charters.
Delegate Danielle Walker, D-Monongalia, cited the morning’s public hearing where the vast majority of 80 speakers opposed charters. “Who’s your puppet master?”
Delegate Evan Worrell, R-Cabell, questioned the partisan divide. He cited then-Gov. Joe Manchin’s 2010 support of charters and the bill that passed out of the Democrat-led Senate, and read a long pro-charter speech by former President Obama.
The common theme among opponents was that very few people want charters. The common themes among supporters were choice and a chance to offer better education opportunities.
Delegate John Doyle, D-Jefferson, said the bill was created as a convoy, for a number of good ideas to carry one bad idea over the finish line.
Many opponents cited the 88% opposition figure was drawn from survey comment cards, but the number was drawn from only 690 of them culled from the more than 2,300 received. Educators and the public want flexibility from regulation and charters offer that.
Delegate Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, said the comment card numbers weren’t cooked. Forum attendees broke into four groups, so only 700 dealt with the school choice topic.
The amendment failed 45-52, keeping charters alive in the bill.
— Delegate Bill Anderson, R-Wood, offered a successful amendment to give a pay hike to teachers who reach 35 years of experience and reach the end of the salary schedule and get no more raises. The hike equals three more years of experience.
— The final two amendments offered conflicting approaches to reductions in force. Delegate Erikka Storch, R-Ohio, led a bipartisan amendment saying RIFs shall be based upon seniority, certification, licensure and performance evaluations. In the event of a RIF, the county board may RIF any teacher with unsatisfactory evaluations for the previous two consecutive years regardless of years of service instead of releasing from employment of less senior classroom teachers with satisfactory performance evaluations.
Espinosa offered the other. It also bases RIFing on seniority, licensure and certification, but includes other measures such as the amount of experience relevant to the position and degrees or coursework in the relevant field. It also lets each county set the policy, opening the door for varying RIF policies across the state.
The differences were subtle but Espinosa’s was characterized by some as offering more latitude and others as being more arbitrary and putting too much power in the hands of the county board. Storch’s was adopted 56-41.
That led to debate on the bill as a whole.
Delegate Mick Bates, D-Raleigh; objected to the bill on the grounds it violates the constitution requirement that a bill embrace a single object. It’s simply a vehicle to enact charter schools.
Delegate Terry Waxman, R-Harrison, said the bills contains many good things but, “We’ve heard a lot of angst expressed about the mere permission to offer charter schools.” Charters offer an option for families who can’t afford private school and are unable to homeschool.
Delegate Larry Kump, R-Berkeley, supported the entire bill, including charters, and said it doesn’t offer as much choice as he’d hoped for.
Delegate Pat McGeehan, R-Hancock, echoed Bates’ caution about the constitutionality and added his own concern that the bill will add about $150 million per year to the base budget. “Where are the fiscal conservatives?”
Here is action on some of the non-omnibus bills.
— HB 148 appropriates $244,200 to the governor’s office to repay federal funds misspent by Frontier, the delegate who explained it said, during Frontier’s broadband deployment project. Passed 94-1. Goes to the Senate.
— HB 153 appropriates $2 million to the Ryan Brown Addiction Prevention and Recovery Fund. Passed 95-0. Goes to the Senate.
— HB 158, to require the state Board of Education to establish a rule “to provide for student accountability with consequences for each individual student’s performance on the statewide summative assessment program.”
It stirred fairly lengthy debate. Some delegates wondered about the need for the bill, questioned the value and quality of the tests, and questioned the ability of the board to handle the issue.
Judiciary chair John Shott, R-Mercer, said one of the things learned during the summer statewide education forums was that many students don’t take the tests seriously and make no effort to do well.
Delegate Cody Thompson, D-Randolph and a teacher, asked how the board would distinguish between students who had a bad night or don’t test well from those who genuinely fool around.
Shott said the bill is written broadly so the board can work with teachers to craft what’s most appropriate. Thompson offered cautious support for it as he’s seen and knows the problem.
Delegate Robert Thompson, D-Wayne, also a teacher, said kids have told him they don’t care about the tests because they don’t affect them, they’re just teacher evaluation tools. They’ll spend five minutes on an hour-long test. He tests matter to everyone but the kids who take them.
Delegate Mark Dean, R-Mingo and a school principal, and Delegate Roy Cooper, R-Summers and a retired teacher, are both sponsors and supported the bill. It passed 84-10 and goes to the Senate.
— HB 174, from the governor, deals with innovation schools and sets up the application process for high performing schools to achieve some flexibility. The bill points out that this doesn’t alter or supersede innovation zones. Passed 94-0 and goes to the Senate.
— HB 192 provides that “no fees, other than fingerprint background check fees, shall be charged to first-time out-of-state applicants for any teaching, administrative, or support certificates that hold a comparable certification in another state; and no fees greater than in-state fees shall be charged to out-of-state applicants who do not hold a comparable certification in another state for any teaching, administrative, or support certificates.”
Delegate Cody Thompson supported the bill but said it might be wise to consider at some point the fees in-state teachers have to pay. Passed 95-0 and goes to the Senate.
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