West Virginia State Democratic Party

West Virginia Democratic Party Platform

Education

Quality Public Education
While the education reforms adopted over the past sixteen years by the Legislature have been some of the most far-reaching and imaginative in the country, we cannot rest on our laurels. We must continue to bring everyone together so that every child has the opportunity to achieve his or her full potential. To this end, the West Virginia Democratic Party pledges its support to:

• Ensure that every child, upon graduation from high school should be ready for post-secondary education and the world of work;
• Provide each child the right to attend school in a safe, disciplined environment. The Safe Schools Act, passed by the West Virginia Legislature is a proper first step in giving assurance to our children and parents;
• Insure that every child is immunized, has sufficient access to health care, and comes to the classroom prepared and able to learn;
• Improve the average salary rank of West Virginia teachers and school personnel, and continue its support for the legislature's efforts to retire the unfunded liability within the Teachers Retirement System;
• Expand the role of school improvement councils and faculty senates so that parents, teachers and other members of the community have a significant voice in the operation of their local schools;
• Establish programs for students who need additional attention, and oppose to Republican efforts to cut Title 1, which offers special basic skills assistance to elementary school children, and oppose all efforts to cut funding of school nutrition programs, including school lunch and summer lunch;
• Recognize that West Virginia must continue to be a national leader in the use of technology in the classroom and support expanded, innovative programs of distance learning; and
• Support aggressively volunteer Adult Literacy Programs, and expand Adult Basic Education programs to provide retraining for West Virginians who have lost their job as a result of trade agreements, outsourcing, and our changing economy;     

With a clear vision of the future and with everyone striving to improve our education system, we can ensure that our children are prepared to compete in a global economy and participate in our nation's democracy.

No Child Left Behind
While we support the goals of the federal No Child Left Behind law (NCLB) --high standards, accountability for all, and the belief that no child should be left behind regardless of their background or abilities--we, the West Virginia Democratic Party believe that:

• Schools should be evaluated by multiple measures, including graduation and college attendance rates, the quality of their teachers, and the performance of students in class, not just by standardized test scores;
• The rigid, one-size-fits-all provisions of NCLB are preventing educators from giving children the individualized attention they need to do well;
• The promised funding should be provided by Congress to meet the goals of NCLB, as the law was under funded by $32.6 billion in the most recent year;
• Federal funding must provide the necessary flexibility and resources for successful education, directed towards smaller class sizes, quality teachers, parental involvement, effective preschool and after school programs, and up-to-date textbooks and technology;
• NCLB is inherently unfair in labeling schools as "failing," even if only one group of students does not do well on a test; and
• We oppose taking funding from schools that do not increase standardized test scores, especially when Congress has failed to fully fund the NCLB act, and we particularly oppose Republican efforts to use failure under NCLB as an excuse to fund "voucher" programs, or any other effort to direct public education monies to private schools, or any other privatization of our public education system.

Higher Education
We affirm the right of every eligible West Virginian to obtain quality, accessible higher education. We recognize that employment opportunities of the future will go to those who have advanced education. We support policies which enhance the availability of post-secondary education to our citizens. In turn, policies should encourage more West Virginians to take advantage of higher education. We oppose Republican efforts to cut student loan programs, which would effectively lower the number of students that go to college. We further recognize that the state must take the lead to ensure that these opportunities are consistent with a fair proportioning of the resources with other essential social service needs.

We support continuing the funding of the PROMISE Scholarships, so that every qualified student who works hard and plays by the rules will have an opportunity to receive some level of higher education. However, as federal and state scholarship monies have recently been in short supply, we encourage the Legislature to investigate making the PROMISE Scholarships a secondary funding source, after federal need-based scholarships, to those students who qualify under both programs.

We support helping every West Virginia family prepare for their children's education through the Pre-Paid College Tuition Program, and we applaud and support the efforts of the Democratic Legislature to increase funding for the West Virginia Higher Education Grant Program.   

We likewise call for a high priority on providing competitive salaries and benefits for all higher education employees.

Finally, Democrats recognize that continued development of a strong community college system will help West Virginians affordably meet challenges present in a changing society.