Once Held Hostage By Teachers’ Unions, West Virginia Just Passed The Nation’s Broadest School Choice Law

In February 2018, public school teachers brought West Virginia to its knees.

Seeking pay raises and better health plans, unions had declared a "Work stoppage" in all 55 counties, shuttering every public school in the state.

The West Virginia House of Delegates quickly caved, scuttling school choice and passing a "Clean" pay raise for teachers.

"If you add up every single ESA utilizer in the rest of the country, there are only about 20,000 of them. The Hope Scholarship will automatically open it up to ten times that many children in West Virginia alone." Applicants for the Hope Scholarship will receive 100 percent of their state education dollars - $4,600 annually - in lieu of public schooling.

"Some kids have done really well in virtual schooling, some have done really well in hybrid, and for some these have been an absolute disaster. It's brought home what we've been saying for so long: kids need different environments." Rucker believes the unions' unyielding stance against school reopening has eroded their support among teachers as well as parents.

"The media has really overplayed the unions' voice about school reopening, as opposed to average teachers' voices," she said.

"The unions don't like the bill, but our phones aren't ringing. We aren't getting emails. It's nothing like last time." The West Virginia United Caucus, a far-left teachers' coalition, was active throughout the strikes and well into 2020, pushing hard against school reopening and advancing a left-leaning slate of educators to head the state's largest teachers' union.

https://thefederalist.com/2021/03/25/once-held-hostage-by-teachers-unions-west-virginia-just-passed-sweeping-school-choice-legislation/