“When you hear politicians start out the discussion with ’Trust me,' you know you’re in trouble," said Lee, president of the West Virginia Education Association.īy law, all government agencies in West Virginia are required to submit new rules and regulations each year to lawmakers for final approval. Dale Lee, the head of the state's largest public educators' union, said educators feel “disrespected" and called the proposed amendment “just another way of our politicians trying to erode our public schools with their own private agenda.” Teachers say some of the problems that drew them to the picket lines in 20 - high teacher vacancy rates, falling test scores, lack of mental health support - worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic, and now lawmakers are trying to assert more control. Four years after more than 30,000 school workers went on strike in one of the nation's poorest states, igniting teacher walkouts nationwide, many say they're overworked and exhausted. The case went to the state Supreme Court, which sided with lawmakers.Īnd in a state that once was a stronghold of organized labor, some see the proposed amendment as part of an effort to defang the most formidable center of union power left standing: public school employees. Just this year, the state Board of Education joined a lawsuit against top Republicans over a school choice program - one of the nation’s most expansive - alleging it unconstitutionally drains money from public schools.
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