West Virginia newspapers speak
The Herald-Dispatch
Math skills for students in the United States are not where they need to be, and the students in West Virginia are even further behind.
After making significant strides in the 1990s, school programs in the state and across the nation have hit something of a plateau, recent numbers from the Nation's Report Card show. The "No Child Left Behind" law set a goal of having 100 percent of students showing proficiency in reading and math by 2014, but, at least on the math front, we are not even close.
Nationally, about 38 percent of fourth-graders and 33 percent of eighth-graders showed proficiency in the 2009 analysis. That means about two-thirds of students do not have a solid command of the math content and skills for that grade level.
Those numbers were essentially flat to the last report in 2007 and not up much from 2003, when the scores were 31 percent for fourth-graders and 27 percent for eighth-graders.
In West Virginia, the scores for fourth-graders actually fell back, while eighth-graders were about the same. But of greater concern, we are still far behind much of the country. Only 28 percent of fourth-graders showed proficiency in math and only 19 percent of eighth-graders.
Only five states scored lower than West Virginia for fourth-graders, and only one scored lower for eighth-graders. Kentucky's scores were in the middle of the pack, and Ohio's scores were even better.
As state education officials point out, demographics have a lot to do with these achievement measures, and West Virginia has more than its share of lower-income students. It also should be noted that West Virginia has made a lot of progress since 1990, when the proficiency score for fourth-graders was only 12 percent and eighth-graders only 9 percent.
But the lag behind so many other states -- including many with poverty problems, too -- is still troubling. Moreover, the fall-off in achievement from the fourth grade to eighth grade is more pronounced than it is on the national level. That less than 20 percent of those middle school students have a solid grasp of math is pretty frightening.
Certainly, you have to ask the question of whether the "No Child Left Behind" initiative is working, since schools made more progress in the 1990s than they have since the program was implemented. A New York Times analysis of the recent scores noted concerns that some states have made their standards less rigorous to avoid the penalties that NCLB provides for failing schools.
David Driscol, chairman of the National Assessment Governing Board, also said last week that a major factor continues to be a "lack of content knowledge and mathematics preparation of our teachers."
West Virginia recently implemented new math content standards and objectives, and, hopefully, those will help move the needle in the future. But schools and parents need to be mindful that this is an area where standing still often means falling behind, and students in our region need to achieve more in the classroom to be competitive in the global economy they will face as adults.
The Register-Herald
Keep up the pressure. That may be the only way the Obama administration, particularly the Environmental Protection Agency, and certain members of Congress finally get the message that anti-coal policies simply won't work for West Virginia and much of the nation.
Gov. Joe Manchin said last week he wants to meet with President Obama over the administration's stance on climate change and its pursuit of cap-and-trade legislation on Capitol Hill.
The governor said his desire to meet with Obama is not related to his recent frustrations with the EPA, including delays on 79 surface mine permits, 23 in West Virginia, and the agency's announcement earlier this month that it planned to revoke a previously issued permit for Mingo Logan Coal's Spruce No. 1 mine. But given a chance to voice those frustrations, you can bet he will.
"Coal is going to be our primary provider of electricity for the next 30 years. That's the practical reality," Manchin said. "West Virginia is very much willing to be involved and play a responsible role."
Washington must realize that coal, through further research and development into burning it more cleanly, can be a major player in future U.S. energy policy. Why adopt a bull-in-a-china-shop approach to cap-and-trade when more and more people are growing skeptical of so-called climate change?
A national poll released last week showed 57 percent of Americans believe there is solid evidence the world is getting warmer, down 20 points in just three years. And only 36 percent feel that human activities such as pollution from power plants, factories and automobiles are behind a temperature increase.
West Virginia's elected officials, all of them, must fight like never before to protect the state's interests to make sure that a reliable energy source is not forgotten, that electric bills do not skyrocket, that thousands of jobs are not lost. In short, they must summon all their political clout and will to keep the state's economy from being severely crippled.
Whether it's the governor meeting face-to-face with the president or state Sen. Mike Green's drive to gain 15,000 signatures on an online petition that will be sent to the EPA, the current attack on coal cannot be allowed to prevail.
Too much is at stake to waste any opportunity to be heard.
The Intelligencer
State officials made it clear years ago that the "top of mind" consideration in regard to legalized gambling was revenue. The more, the better, in their minds. As competition in other states chips away at the amount West Virginia collects from legalized gambling, protecting revenue becomes even more important.
For that reason state Lottery Commission officials ought to pursue free-market policies in regard to "limited video lottery" machines - or electronic slots.
Though the first round of 10-year licenses for LVL machines does not come up for renewal until mid-2011, lottery commission officials are considering whether the rules should be changed. One suggestion has been that efforts should be made to limit the number of outlets where video slot machines are available.
Never fear, however - that proposal is not coming from those who simply don't like mini-casinos on every street corner. It originated with some current holders of LVL licenses who want bigger slices of the pie and are eager to limit the competition.
It has been suggested that bars and restaurants, now allowed a maximum of five video slot machines, should have the limit increased to 10. Reportedly, the idea is that more slots would enable such establishments to compete better against small outlets, which can plug in coffee makers and qualify for licenses. It also would give the bars and restaurants help against fraternal organizations, which are permitted to have 10 machines - even if the "organization" is brand new and invented primarily for gambling purposes.
State officials should not be in the business of protecting anyone's turf in regard to gambling. If the idea is to maximize revenue - as it apparently is - the rules should be set for that purpose. Most marketing strategies recognize that the more outlets for a product or service, the better. Limiting or reducing the number of small LVL establishments would be counterproductive in that sense.
Lottery commission officials should examine the licensing question not from the standpoint of helping special interests - but in order to serve the state as a whole.
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