Senate committee narrows ability to redirect teacher‑induction dollars to school‑safety projects in House Bill 54 38
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Summary
After debate over whether county boards could shift teacher‑induction funds to school‑safety projects, the committee adopted amendments to House Bill 54 38 limiting that flexibility and voted to report the bill to the full Senate with a double reference to finance.
The Senate committee advanced House Bill 54 38 on a voice vote after adopting amendments that limit how counties could reallocate funds intended for teacher and leader induction.
Counsel Hank told the committee the bill removes language that previously allowed counties to use up to 50% of certain instructional-technology allocations for personnel and would permit the Department of Education to retain up to $15,000,000 annually to implement a uniform budgeting and accounting system. Counsel also said the bill would allow county boards, under some circumstances, to use up to 50% of the allocation for teacher and leader induction to fund projects identified in the Safe Schools Fund request.
Senior senator from the 4th pressed counsel and Department staff on whether the change would defund or otherwise divert money from the teacher leader program, which the senator described as a network that "is keeping teachers who have a passion in math in a network to work with each other to improve their ability to teach math in West Virginia." Counsel and the Department representative, Drew McClanahan, said the language would give counties the option to move unused or leftover funds to the Safe Schools Fund but was not intended to automatically reduce the teacher‑leader networks. As McClanahan put it, the language "would allow funds to be moved" to Safe Schools if counties chose to do so.
To address concerns about protecting teacher‑induction funding, the committee adopted an amendment proposed by the senior senator that struck the specific lines allowing up to 50% of certain induction allocations to be used for Safe Schools projects. The amendment and the amendment to the amendment were adopted by voice vote. The committee then voted to report HB 54 38, as amended, to the full Senate with the recommendation that it pass; under the bill's double original committee reference it will first go to the Committee on Finance.
The committee did not adopt changes to the Department's authority to retain up to $15,000,000 to support regional professional learning cadres and teacher leader networks; counsel said that retention language remains in paragraph h. The bill now proceeds to the next steps in the Senate.