Education to economy: Lawmakers expect session will take courage, creativity

PRINCETON — Anything can happen during a legislative session, but there are three main topics local lawmakers expect to dominate the session that starts in February: education, economy and health care.

Big changes are on the way for all three, but as Del. John Shott summed up the situation, Mercer County legislators and state leaders will need courage and creativity to meet the challenges.

Legislators from both West Virginia and Virginia met with local business leaders on Jan. 4 for the annual Point of View Breakfast, hosted by the Greater Bluefield Chamber of Commerce.

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One of the most eagerly anticipated goals of the next session is a review and enactment of the massive education audit recommendations commissioned by former Gov. Joe Manchin and received by Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin.

“West Virginia has one of the most highly centralized and top-heavy state governments of any state in the country,” Shott said, adding that the reality is evident at the West Virginia State Board of Education.

He believes that top-heavy administration costs the state greatly.

According to Shott’s figures, West Virginia ranks 45th in the salaries paid to professional educators, but the state ranks 20th in spending per pupil.

“Somewhere along the way, those resources are getting sapped off,” he said.

Del. Joe Ellington called on local educators to embrace the education audit, rather that fight the change it recommends.

“Most of what I’ve seen is resistance to all of the things in the audit,” he said.

Del. Marty Gearheart changed the subject slightly, while still sticking with education.

He said he sees a problem with the current emphasis on WESTest scores used to gauge student achievement throughout the state. Scores are then used to evaluate the quality of education offered by a teacher or a school.

“As such, teachers are evaluated on a test that students don’t really care anything about,” Gearheart said.

He believes both teachers and students should be evaluated on a set of relevant standards that hold both parties responsible for the outcome.

And, while they’re being held accountable, Cole said students must be ready to do something productive when the leave school.

“We’ve got to graduate kids out of our schools that are ready to go to work,” he said.

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Sen. Truman Chafin called for all of the business leaders and development drivers in Mercer County to unite soon.

“I want to talk to you like I talked to my law office staff this morning. [It’s a] new year. We have 48 months with the sun shining on us in Mercer County and in southern West Virginia,” Chafin said. “We’ve got a southern governor.”

While much of the Legislature’s power positions have gone to representatives from the northern part of the state, Chafin said Tomblin is passionate about serving southern West Virginia well.

He urged local leaders to take a hard look at the local Development Authority of Mercer County and draft some realistic possibilities that would help improve the economic climate locally.

“We need a plan and we need people on the Economic Development Authority that can meet once a month up here and develop issues for ‘13, ‘14, ‘15, and ‘16, while [Tomblin] is in office,” Chafin said.

Like Chafin, Del. Clif Moore urged citizens and business people to strengthen the ties that bind them.

“We have a connectivity and a commitment. Whether you’re a Republican, Democrat or Independent, we have a connectivity and a commitment,” Moore said. “That connectivity is southern West Virginia. That commitment is to resurrect, revitalize and stabilize southern West Virginia.”

He asked Mercer leaders to consider convening a public forum of local, state and national experts on development and any other challenges that face the region. Such an event, he said, would allow southern West Virginia to make the most of solutions our neighbors may already have found.

Cole stuck to his campaign pledge to push for more jobs locally.

“I campaigned on the need for jobs, jobs being virtually the answer to everything that ails us,” he said.

Ellington reminded his legislative colleagues and citizens about Mercer County’s challenges as a border county and signaled that he would continue to push for lower gasoline taxes, which drive Mountain State motorists across the state line into Virginia to buy fuel, and so-called sugar or tobacco taxes, which would do the same.

“I just see too much industry going across the border,” Ellington said.

And, Gearheart promised again to do everything within his power to see a legislative rule enacted securing the end of the West Virginia Turnpike tolls, once the bonds on the road are paid in full in 2019.

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The only thing each lawmaker in attendance was certain about health care was that no one is certain what to expect from the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, which will fully take effect in 2014.

“The state has already moved this forward as far as we’re going to with the exchange,” Ellington said.

He expects the program to be expensive.

“The IRS is going to oversee all of this, so it’s going to be a big bureaucracy,” Ellington said.

While others may be busy fighting the implementation of Obamacare, the only doctor-legislator in the group last Friday said he doubted the law could or would be overturned.

“We have this system; we’re going to have to deal with it,” Ellington said.

— Contact Tammie Toler at ttoler@ptonline.net.

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Education to economy: Lawmakers expect session will take courage, creativity

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