| Bob Weaver
The FBI has joined at least three other entities investigating possible wrongdoing by
state education officials. With the state standing near 40th in academic achievement
while spending $7,115 per pupil, among the highest amount in the country, there is
considerable cause for concern.
Perhaps the issuing of contracts for equipment at several times the going rate and
the extension of favoritism to friends whose reputation for performance is reported
"sleazy," is cause for alarm and to ask "Where has the money gone?"
West Virginia taxpayers are accustomed to few wrongdoers being held accountable.
After all, these are smart folks who know how to cover their buttocks, not he least
being the former chieftain Hank Marockie.
We have J. D. Morris, resigned President of the State Board of Education, stealing
student loan funds from his own bank, and current allegations against resigned
Assistant Superintendent McClung and his friend "Porkchop." Several other deals are
being investigated with clouds of suspicion.
State school head David Stewart, we believe, is an honest and honorable man, as
others who are on the West Virginia Board of Education. It is time for them to play
hardball, if confidence is restored toward the state educational system.
While nearly all America is moving away from large consolidated schools as a failed
experiment, West Virginia, mostly with the blessing of Education Chairman Senator
Lloyd Jackson (D-Lincoln), continues to snowball with small school closings and
consolidation. Nearly all studies show smaller schools produce better academic
results. Smaller schools have less problems. Smaller schools are less expensive.
Even Exemplary Schools have been closed in West Virginia.
Gov. Bob Wise should resist appointing Jackson to the State Board of Education, a
position he is seeking since he is no longer running for the legislature. Senator
Jackson's snowballing and educational policies need to be carefully evaluated, if not
discarded.
Jackson, while having reasonable concerns about 55 county systems, is a "bigger is
better" centralist who is pulling power to Charleston, as the Bush administration is
pulling power to Washington.
Thomas Jefferson was clear of mind about the importance of public education and
how it would nurture and protect our democracy. Surely, somewhere in all this mess,
there is a way to "keep it simple" and educate our children. Federal and state
takeover, privatizing the system, vouchers, and 6,000 complicated pages of rules
would cause Mr. Jefferson to have angina.
Thankfully, school head David Stewart has called a stop, at least for now, on the
letting of an oversight contract to build a new $30 million school in Lincoln County,
the contractor being one of the businesses under scrunity.
The Lincoln consolidated school would have a construction expenditure of $37,000
per pupil, while the national average, reflecting some high-cost, high real estate
areas, is $16,000.
It would be a bitter pill to swallow if the investigation discloses the multi-million dollar
school consolidation effort is plagued with graft, and would be the answer why West
Virginia, unlike other states, has failed to put a halt to it.
If ever there is a time for public concern over public education, it is now.
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