Dismantling WV Education and the Arts Department

Last edited Fri Feb 24, 2017, 09:01 PM - Edit history (1)

The West Virginia House Education Committee, in a voice vote with a few nays heard, passed Wednesday night a bill that would eliminate the Department of Education and the Arts and transfer most of the agencies it contains elsewhere in state government.

House Bill 2524, of which committee Chairman Paul Espinosa, R-Jefferson, is the lead sponsor, also would essentially eliminate the secretary of education and the arts position and would eliminate the current Center for Professional Development, which is under the Department of Education and the Arts. The Center for Professional Development, a teacher training agency, already had its state funding cut by about a third for this fiscal year.

The department’s Library Commission, Division of Culture and History and Division of Rehabilitation Services would be transferred to the Department of Commerce. The Educational Broadcasting Authority would become an independent agency within the executive branch.

The Volunteer West Virginia community service agency, the final agency within the department, isn’t made part of the department through law other than the fact that its funding line items are under the department’s budget. The separate budget bill could transfer the line items elsewhere if the department is eliminated.

- See more at: http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news-education/20170222/dismantling-wv-education-and-the-arts-department-eyed