Goals and Beliefs

1. Teachers seek to educate children to the best of their ability, and should care about the overall well-being of students.

2. Teachers and school employees should not be guilted into working additional hours beyond their contract under the guise of “you should do this for the children.”

3. A workplace free from irrelevant or redundant paperwork, duties, and obligations benefits all stakeholders in a school system.

4. Success in education is far more likely to occur when schools maintain a low teacher to student ratio.

5. School systems should actively seek to prevent school consolidation whenever possible.

Schools serve as an important community institution for smaller towns in West Virginia.
Merging those institutions deprives towns of an integral part of their communities.
Consolidation trends also push schools into regional locations that lessen student attachment to schools and classmates.

6. Labor unions provide an efficient function for education. They protect school employees from unfair treatment by administration at various levels and ensure employees receive due process protections.

7. Teachers working in West Virginia are not compensated at an equitable level with other professionals who possess bachelor’s and master’s degrees. The state government has a responsibility to find ways to incentivize working in the field of education. Teachers remain open to possibilities beyond salary compensation, including, but not limited to: eliminating state income tax on teachers, enhancing PEIA benefits, student loan assistance beyond federal options, and educational credits towards advanced degrees.

8. Members of state government should thoroughly coordinate with teachers, service
personnel, and administration in planning changes to educational laws and policy.

9. Charter schools hold no place in West Virginia. Not only are they not practical due to
geographical and demographical challenges, but they do not benefit students in terms of their test scores or learning. Charter schools take funds away from public schools and often have far less oversight.

10. Teachers are receptive to change, but not for the sake of changing. They want to see change that produces tangible results. While open to different ideas from state leaders, teachers wish to seek change from the bottom-up, not top-down.