Public education was a major concern of West Virginia’s founders. Article 12 Section 1 of the state constitution states that “The Legislature shall provide, by general law, for a thorough and efficient system of free schools.”
Good luck with that these days.
The public education system that taught most people reading this newspaper is now under attack as never before. And the source of that attack is some of the leadership of the West Virginia legislature.
In recent years, a majority of legislators pushed through a bill allowing public money to be diverted to profit-making charter schools, which have little or no public accountability, as well as a program that essentially pays parents to take kids and funding out of the public schools that the vast majority of West Virginians rely on.
Now some want to rewrite the state constitution with two amendments that would centralize in their hands control over school funding and curriculum that now resides with county governments, local voters, and school boards.
To paraphrase the late great Mister Rogers, can you say power grab?
Amendment 2 would essentially give the legislature to power to eliminate business taxes on equipment and property that now provide over a quarter of funding for counties, cities, and schools. As a sweetener, it would also give them power to eliminate taxes on personal vehicles, although the lion’s share of more than 70 percent would go to businesses, many of which are out of state corporations.
If voters approve this amendment, the legislature could cut property taxes by over $500 million dollars. As things now stand, 66 percent of this revenue funds county school districts. Another 33.5 percent goes to county and municipal governments to provide funding for things like emergency medical services, fire protection, public safety, public libraries and senior citizen centers and other services.
This would end a long tradition of constitutional protections for local services, take authority for property taxes away from local voters and communities, and could impact bonds and levies supported by supermajorities of 60 percent or more of local voters. Currently 44 of West Virginia’s 55 counties fund services through voter-approved levies.
Supporters of Amendment 2 say that local governments will be “made whole” by state funding, but there’s no guarantee of that—and doing so would simply require cuts to state funding for other programs. The budget surpluses the state now enjoys are mostly the result of one-time federal COVID relief funding. Making long term plans based on temporary gains is a bit like counting on lottery winnings in making a family’s budget.
The likely long-term results will be either cuts in public services or regressive tax increases that fall on working class families…or a combination thereof.
As Governor Jim Justice put it, with the apparent approval of Babydog, “We’re taking away an income stream and betting on good times forever and putting at risk our schools, our EMS, our firemen, our police and whatever it may be. We have to step back and think about what we are doing.”
And while eliminating those taxes might give a break to corporations and the politicians they financially support, it’s not likely to result in more jobs for West Virginians. State and local taxes make up less than two percent of the cost of doing business, so we’re talking about a fraction of a fraction. Some evidence even suggests that cuts in equipment taxes can result in automation and loss of manufacturing jobs.
Then there’s Amendment 4. If passed by voters, this would essentially nullify the intent of Article 12 Section 6 of the state constitution that specifies that “the school board of any district shall be elected by the voters of the respective district without reference to political party affiliation” by giving partisan politicians control over classrooms and taking authority away from educators, school boards, parents, and voters.
Do we really want politicians to be able to control and censor the books kids read, the lessons they learn, and even the songs they sing?
Once you go down that road, there’s no telling how things will end up, but it’s never a good place. It’s a slippery slope from book banning to book burning.
Here’s hoping West Virginia voters of all stripes show up in November to vote “no” on 2 and 4 and protect the education system we need for a decent future as well as local control of the investments we rely on for everything from emergency services to parks and recreation.
(This appeared as a column in the Charleston Gazette-Mail.)
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