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CHARLESTON, WV— Today, Governor Jim Justice responded to a study from WalletHub that shows West
Virginia at the bottom of the barrel in public education.
During the legislative session, the Governor wanted to increase teacher
pay and avoid painful cuts to higher education. However, the Legislature
failed to take action and the net result is NO 2% pay raise for teachers
and more cuts to West Virginia’s colleges and universities.
“This analysis confirms what the people already know: West
Virginia needs a new playbook because all we do is keep pitching 50th,” said Governor Jim Justice.
“We’ll always be dead last if we don’t make changes, that’s why I fought
so hard for a teacher pay raise so we can fill the 700 vacant teaching
positions across the state, but the Legislature killed that plan. I also
did everything in my power to stop cuts to higher education, but the
Legislature made cuts that were totally unnecessary. If we don’t invest
in education we’ll continue to be dead last.”
Justice added,
“We are too blooming good to accept this. Our teachers are good people
and they work hard, but we are losing them to other states due to low
pay. If all the Legislature wants to do is turn their back on students
and teachers then West Virginia will stay stuck at the bottom. It’s real
simple, if we don’t give our schools the tools to compete then we’ll
never improve.”
The Governor challenged the people of West Virginia to ask
their Delegates and Senators why we don’t invest in our schools or pay
our teachers better.
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