CHARLESTON — The statewide teachers walkout will continue Tuesday, union leaders announced at a rally at the Capitol Monday.
Christine Campbell, president of the American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia, and Dale Lee, president of the West Virginia Education Association, made the announcement an afternoon rally.
We still have a lot of work to do,” Lee said. “This is not over. We will be on the picket lines and be back at the Capitol tomorrow. Make sure they hear your voices.”
The West Virginia Division of Military Affairs and Public Safety reported that 5,316 people came through the public access entrances of the Capitol Monday.
As of 8 p.m., all 55 counties had called off school for Tuesday.
The teacher walkout has received national attention as well. Actress Reese Witherspoon on Monday referenced the statewide walkout, tweeting, “I’m always shocked how little teachers are paid. Don’t our representatives know that teachers have one of the hardest and most important jobs in our country?”
As thousands of teachers, school personnel and supporters poured into the Capitol for the third day of the statewide walkout, Gov. Jim Justice held three town halls elsewhere in the state to meet with school personnel.
Following the announcement that the walkout would continue, Justice tweeted, “I think you need to be back in the classroom tomorrow #wvgov.”
Justice held his first town hall Monday morning in Wheeling, followed by events in Martinsburg and Morgantown.
In the Wheeling event, which was live-streamed through his office’s Facebook account, Justice said he will call a special session if a co-tenancy bill does not pass the Senate. House Bill 4628 would allow development of oil and natural gas resources across adjoining properties if at least three-fourths of the property’s owners agree.
Justice said should that happen, the special session would only focus on oil and gas, not education.
“I will tell you as point blank as I can tell you, the repercussions, I will say a blood oath or whatever, if we are able to extract in additional severance, whatever it takes to be able to underpin PEIA for additional severance, I will do.”
Justice suggested via Twitter adding a 2-to-2.5 percent severance tax to the co-tenancy bill, which is not currently in the bill pending before the Senate.
“I believe there is a chance of your PEIA being fixed permanently by a severance tax on oil and gas if we have a special session.” Justice tweeted Monday.
Justice also talked about a task force to focus on issues confronting the Public Employees Insurance Agency (PEIA), saying he plans to have that task force appointed in the next seven to 10 days.
In Charleston, teachers and school personnel crammed into the Capitol once again. Teachers rallying at the Capitol said their top concern is finding a stable revenue stream for PEIA. The PEIA Finance Board recently voted to freeze the plan. A bill currently pending before the Senate would dedicate $29 million from the Rainy Day Fund to the PEIA Stabilization Fund to freeze the plan.
Senate President Mitch Carmichael has said the Senate is not interested in using one-time money to do this and said there may have to be cuts elsewhere. In an impromptu press conference Friday, Justice said these cuts for the 2 percent raise this year and the PEIA freeze will come from Commerce and Tourism.
Other measures have passed the House, including a bill to dedicate 20 percent of any surplus to the PEIA Stability Fund.
David Pack, a teacher for 15 years, and Renee Shiflett, a teacher for 27 years, both of Raleigh County, said they would like to see a stable revenue stream.
“I would like to see money dedicated to PEIA to fund it every year,” Shiflett said. “Every single year, we have to worry about whether it will happen again.”
Andrea Martin, a Raleigh County resident who teaches in Fayette County, also said finding a stable revenue source is her top concern. Martin, who has been a teacher for 19 years, said she has always had a second job — working as a waitress, conducting home visits for the state’s Birth to Three program, and currently she sells jewelry and works at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center.
“It’s to pay my bills — I have one kid in college and one in high school,” she said. “I’ve been doing this probably since 2006 — working two jobs — when their dad and I split up. I’ve been working two jobs ever since.”
Martin is a pre-school special needs teacher. She said she would like to see a higher tax on natural gas as a potential funding stream.
“We’re not asking for too much,” she said. “We just want to make a living. We want it to be affordable. Everyone says all the teachers are fighting about a raise. It’s not about a raise. It’s about insurance. My premiums are tripling and my coverage is going down. … I love what I do. I do this for my babies but I also need to support my babies at home. I need insurance where I can afford to take my babies to the doctor.”
Many of the teachers there said they want to go back to school.
“I think there needs to be a dedicated funding source to PEIA so this doesn’t happen again,” Pack said. “We would rather be in our classrooms teaching our kids, but this is so important that we’re down here trying to get it fixed.”