West Virginia schools have faced many issues over the last couple years. These issues range from test scores under preforming to not having enough teachers. Though West Virginia lawmakers are looking for solutions to these problems, they have focused on other bills that could possibly negatively impact schools.

Senate Bill 143 would amend section 18-5-51 of W.Va. code. In relation to school safety, this bill would start a program called the West Virginia Guardian Program.

“Our teachers, our staff, and our children deserve to go to school every day knowing that they will come home at night,” said Republican Sen. Laura Wakim Chapman of Ohio County.

This program would allow the county to contact honorable discharged veterans and any form of law enforcement officers to provide services for safety. Though they cannot arrest people, they are allowed to carry concealed weapons on school grounds.

The bill also has requirements and regulations. These include that they will have to carry their permits, complete a drug screening, pass a state police law enforcement standard program, and complete a firearm use of force course.

This bill is currently in the house of education.

House Bill 4299 would amend and reenact 61-7-11a of W.Va. code. This would allow teachers of elementary and secondary school to carry concealed weapons. This bill is similar to the senate’s bill.

This bill would make teachers who volunteer into “school protection officers.

With the teacher volunteering they would have to have a concealed carry license and would have to go through additional training. With this training it could cost the teacher up to $270,000 with training costs.

This bill is currently to the senate.

House bill 4654 would amend code 61-8a-2 of W.Va. code. What this bill will do is put liability on schools, public libraries, and museums for carrying books or art that is considered inappropriate and obscene matter away from minors.

Though code 61-8a-2 of the state code already says if an adult shows a minor obscene matter intentionally to a minor will be charged with a felony, pay up $25,000 and serve up to 5 years in prison. This bill would take away the exemption from schools, libraries, and museums.

“The librarians on staff might not know if a book has obscene matter in it or may or may not have shown it to someone, but because it was in the facility and it was sitting on a shelf, it could still be prosecuted,” said Minority Whip Shawn Fluharty.

This bill has been passed in the house and is now off to the senate.

Senate bill 466 would add on and create 18-2-44 to the W.Va. Code. This bill would require grades 3-12 a safety while accessing technology program that would start for 2025-2026 school year.

This program would teach safe use of social media, risks of sharing personal data and importance of privacy protection, copyright laws, and many more different ways to look out for suspicious activity on the internet. It would also include resources and help for students and parents.

This bill has made it through the senate and has made its way to house education for review.

House bill 4767 would amend 18a-4-2 of state code. This bill would up the minimum annual salary of teacher pay to an equivalent to surrounding states. They have also brought along with this bill, House bill 4202 that would increase school service personnel to $900 a month.

The current base salary for teachers in W.Va. that just have a bachelor’s degree is $38,995. This bill would increase that amount to $44,000. Depending on the degree a teacher has and their years of experience their salary would also increase to a higher amount. These bills would fill vacant positions in both fields, so their salaries aren’t competing with other states like Pennsylvania.

“We want to get them to the point where they’re comfortable, competitive, get people to stay here in the state so we can fill our slots and get our students educated. That was the goal. But we also want to give them the comfortable lifestyle. We’d like to give them more. However, there’s a finite amount,” said Education Committee Chairman Joe Ellington, R-Mercer about the teacher pay raise.

Both bills are currently in the house of finance.

House Bill 4902 would amend 18a-2-2b of W.Va. code. This bill would provide a pay increase to special education aids and self-contained special education teachers. This bill is similar to Senate Bill 680.

This would give these teachers a %10 percent pay raise to the teachers and a %5 pay raise to the aids.

These delegates hope this will help fix the issue with special education teacher shortage.
“It’s at a crisis level, the shortage we have is our special education classrooms,” said Delegate Mike Pushkin.

This bill is currently in the house of finance.

Senate Bill 259 would amend both 47-26-1 and 47-26-2 of W.Va. code. This bill would create the PROMISE plus program. This would supplement to PROMISE to supply funding to meet tuition expenses.

Though with PROMISE plus would come with additional standards than what was before for the PROMISE scholarship. It’s for the students who go above the PROMISE scholarships requirements rigorously.

The Current PROMISE scholarship is $5,200. In state tuition at WVU is $9,648. This scholarship would provide more money to college. Though they go out of state for college they would have to pay it back.

This Bill is currently in finance.

Senate Bill 813 would amend 18-2-25f of W.Va. code. This bill would allow students to participate in non-school athletic activities. Meaning that students care be a part of school sports and travel teams.

“A lot of these parents and students are choosing travel over playing for their high school team because the travel gives them more exposure to more college coaches and other things. So, we want to be able to get that exposure and have the sense of pride for playing for your community,” said Senate Education Committee Chair Amy Grady.

Though with playing both travel and school sports, some coaches have had some concerns with this bill.

With travel ball there is no academic standards like school sports do. They also have concerns with sports medicine issues and how they’re worried the students would be worn out.

This Bill has been passed in the senate and is being ordered to the house.

If passed, these bills will become the future for the West Virginia education systems. All of these bills have not at the time been passed as law yet. As a student or teacher, you have the power to pass a bill you think is good with the power of your voice.