Introduced Version
Senate Concurrent Resolution 13 History
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SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 13
(By Senators Rowe, Hunter
, Weeks, Caldwell and McCabe)
Requesting the three branches of state government to cooperate and
encourage leaders of the state, county and municipal
governments to identify and affirmatively address the racial
disparities in the areas of civil rights, health, education,
housing, social issues, employment, economic development and
criminal and juvenile justice systems in West Virginia.
Whereas, House Concurrent Resolution No. 76, adopted by the
West Virginia Legislature in 2002, recognizes and outlines a number
of employment, social, health, educational, criminal justice and
economic problems confronting African-Americans and their
communities in this state; and
Whereas, Select Committee B on Minority Issues was created by
the Joint Committee on Government and Finance as part of the 2003
legislative interims to consider House Concurrent Resolution No. 76
and make recommendations and offer solutions to problems identified
in House Concurrent Resolution No. 76; and
Whereas, According to the 2000 Census, African-Americans
comprise approximately 3.2 percent of the state's population and
more than 5 percent of the population in seven counties; and
Whereas, The Legislature should be committed to connecting
communities, exploring strategies for racial and social equality and taking proactive steps to remedy the effects of past
discrimination on African-American children, adults and families;
and
Whereas, Prevention of discrimination in civil rights, the
justice system, education, health care, economic development,
employment, business development, housing, community and family
services is preferable to attempting to remedy the consequences of
discrimination; and
Whereas, There is a wide disparity between African-American
and caucasian public school students in West Virginia with regard
to standardized testing scores, indicating a significant
achievement gap which widens with tragic consequences for a number
of African-American students as they progress in school; and
Whereas, On the 2003 ACT college entrance examination, which
is used by the PROMISE scholarship program to determine eligibility
for college scholarships, African-American students' success rate
was significantly lower than that of caucasian students; and
Whereas, African-American children have been overrepresented
in special education programs in schools in Kanawha County, the
only area of the state for which statistics were provided to the
Committee, and underrepresented in advanced education programs and
programs for performing or gifted students. The Kanawha County
Board of Education has established programs to identify and include
all qualified students, without regard to race, in special programs to enhance performance and to address the academic achievement gap
between African-American and caucasian children at early stages of
the public education process; and
Whereas, The percentage of African-American teachers and
educational professionals in many of the state's public schools is
disproportionately lower than the African-American student
population which, to some degree, deprives minority students of
African-American role models and advocates in educational settings;
and
Whereas, Training assistance and education programs with
affirmative outreach to African-Americans combine to help prevent
racial discrimination; and
Whereas, African-Americans in West Virginia experience a
disproportionately higher incidence of health risk and mortality
from cancer, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and HIV;
African-American women tend to be diagnosed with breast cancer at
later stages than caucasian women; and the teen birth rate and the
infant mortality rate among African-Americans is twice that of
caucasians; and
Whereas, The percentage of African-American children in the
care and/or custody of the Bureau for Children and Families in 2003
was more than twice the percentage of African-Americans in the
general West Virginia population; and
Whereas, Business ownership among African-Americans in Charleston, West Virginia, the only area of the state for which
statistics were provided to the Committee, is proportionately less
than minority business ownership nationwide; and
Whereas, The unemployment rate of African-Americans recently
has been about twice the unemployment rate for caucasians and
significantly higher in some counties with a greater concentration
of African-American population; and
Whereas, Statistics provided by the State Equal Employment
Opportunity Office indicate that the percentage of minority
employees among full-time state government employees under the
control of the Department of Administration is approximately the
same as the percentage of African-Americans in the state's
population as a whole; and
Whereas, The West Virginia Advisory Committee to the United
States Commission on Civil Rights has found continuing reports of
racial discrimination in hiring, tension between law-enforcement
officers and African-American citizens and hate crimes and violence
against minorities, including reported incidents of harassment of
racial and ethnic minorities in schools; and
Whereas, The West Virginia Human Rights Commission reports
that two thirds of the hate crimes reported between 1992 and 2000
were racially motivated; and
Whereas, The West Virginia Legislative Auditor's Performance
Evaluation and Research Division (PERD) reports there is a scarcity of minority and female state troopers, especially in upper ranks,
with only 16 (2.6 percent) of 606 troopers being female and only 3
(1.3 percent) of 606 troopers being African-American; that the
percentages of female and African-American officers in county
sheriff's departments are even lower; and that the state's 10
largest cities employ, on average, only 4.6 percent female officers
and 3.9 percent African-American officers even though most of those
cities have significantly greater populations of African-Americans;
and
Whereas, The West Virginia State Police has voluntarily sought
to determine and monitor its own efforts relating to racial
profiling sensitivity during routine traffic stops; and
Whereas, According to data voluntarily collected and provided
by the West Virginia State Police, between October, 2002, and
March, 2003, motor vehicles operated by minority drivers were
stopped by state troopers at a rate roughly comparable to the
percentage of minorities in the general state population. After
being stopped, 63 percent of minority drivers were ticketed or
arrested, compared to 51 percent of caucasian drivers, and warnings
were issued to 37 percent of all minority drivers, compared to 49
percent of caucasian drivers; and
Whereas, West Virginia enjoys both a low juvenile crime rate
and one of the nation's lowest juvenile detention rates, yet the
percentage of minority youth in the West Virginia juvenile justice system exceeds the national rate of minority youths in the juvenile
justice system; and
Whereas, In West Virginia, African-Americans make up only 3.2
percent of the general population, but account for one third of the
adult prison population, one fifth of the juveniles placed in
detention and admitted to correctional facilities and over one half
of the juveniles transferred to adult jurisdiction for major
felonies; and
Whereas, There is a great and immediate need for comprehensive
data collection and analysis on a multiyear basis and for
continuing examination and review of solutions with regard to
racial disparities in the areas of civil rights, health, education,
housing, social issues, employment, economic development and
criminal and juvenile justice systems; therefore, be it
Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Legislature hereby requests the three branches of
state government cooperate and encourage leaders of the state to
identify and affirmatively address the racial disparities in the
areas of civil rights, health, education, housing, social issues,
employment, economic development and criminal and juvenile justice
systems; and, be it
Further Resolved, That county boards of education should be
encouraged to aggressively recruit minority teachers and other
professionals to work in the public school system; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Department of Education and county
boards of education be given greater flexibility to employ teachers
who are trained or experienced in working with African-American
children and parents; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Legislature should provide funding
for professional development to improve teachers' effectiveness
with African-American students and parents; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Legislature should provide more
funding for academic enrichment programs in locations where there
are concentrations of poor and minority students, including more
early preschool programs and after-school programs; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Department of Health and Human
Resources should increase access to education in welfare-to-work
programs and evaluate placement and referral policies; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Governor continue the mission of
the Governor's Minority Students' Strategies Council to collect and
analyze information from other states and organizations regarding
effective policies and strategies for closing the academic
achievement gap between caucasian and minority students and to
prepare an annual report for the Governor, the State Board of
Education, the Higher Education Policy Commission, the Legislative
Oversight Commission on Education Accountability and the public
outlining issues, recommendations and strategies to close the
academic achievement gap; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Department of Education be required
to review its Policy No. 2421, 126 CSR 18 (1996), governing peer
harassment and violence against minority students, to study the
extent to which the policy has been implemented in public schools
throughout the state and to take necessary steps to ensure complete
implementation of the policy in all public schools as soon as
reasonably possible; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Department of Education and county
boards of education themselves, with the input of the local
communities, should provide hate crime prevention and response
programs in schools and anti-bias training and education for
students and teachers, including mechanisms to ensure harassment is
reported before problems escalate and that there are appropriate
responses to incidents of harassment when they do occur; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Legislature should direct resources
to support community-level partnership and innovation to address
racial and ethnic disparities in health care; and, be it
Further Resolved, That all governmental agencies, institutions
and corporate bodies at state and local levels should be encouraged
to regularly collect, analyze and report data to the Department of
Administration relating to racial disparities among children,
adults and families in West Virginia; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Department of Administration should
review and, if necessary, establish or reform state procurement policies and practices to assure that they meet federal and state
requirements and that they effectively encourage meaningful
participation of African-Americans and other minorities in the
process of competing for and awarding of state contracts for goods
and services; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the state should continue to support
and expand small business incubator programs, such as the program
at Bluefield State College, to encourage new and minority small
business development; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the state should undertake initiatives
to encourage African-American business ownership similar to those
efforts used to encourage greater rates of business ownership among
women; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the state should assist community and
economic development corporations to provide effective technical
and business advisory services to minority-owned and -operated
enterprises; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Governor and the Legislature should
encourage industry, banks and other private businesses to hire
African-Americans and businesses to be more aggressive in
establishing diversity-conscious practices as employers and for
their operations; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the state should encourage traditional
and nontraditional lending institutions to be more creative and favorable to lending in minority communities and to minority
persons, especially for business enterprises; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Legislature should encourage small
business start-up and expansion and provide funding to assist
African-American and other minority vendors to meet bid bonding
requirements; and, be it
Further Resolved, That workforce investment boards should be
accountable for educating poor and minority persons for jobs better
than low-paying service jobs; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the West Virginia State Police and
local law-enforcement officers should be trained and required to
collect data regarding stops of motor vehicle operators, including
information on the stops and arrests of African-Americans; and, be
it
Further Resolved, That the West Virginia State Police and
local law-enforcement agencies be required to provide diversity
training for officers, including training to recognize and report
hate crimes; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the West Virginia State Police be
required to develop, in writing, goals for increasing the number of
women and African-Americans for all grades of officers and staff
and to report annually as to its efforts and success in meeting
those goals and be encouraged to employ African-Americans and other
minorities as recruiting officers; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Legislature, the Governor and the
Supreme Court of Appeals should increase support for criminal
justice research and for the development, maintenance and continued
assessment of data related to the effectiveness of the court system
in the areas of criminal sentencing, juvenile adjudication and
community-based corrections; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Legislature should protect and
maintain the confidentiality of juvenile records pending a study of
the adverse impact of the release of such records on the employment
and higher education opportunities of minority youth; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the West Virginia Supreme Court of
Appeals should continue to study issues related to minority youth,
including the highly disproportionate number of minority youth
transferred from juvenile to adult jurisdiction in the criminal
justice system, through its Task Force to Study Perceived Racial
Disparity in the Juvenile Justice System and to study and develop
similar research projects with data collection in regard to adult
offenders; and, be it
Further Resolved, That state agencies should study racial
disparities in a number of areas to reduce gaps in educational
achievement and in the overrepresentation of African-Americans in
adult prisons and juvenile facilities and encourage all
participants in the educational and justice systems, including
teachers, principals and other educational personnel, probation officers, juvenile referees, judges, justices, prosecutors,
attorneys, law-enforcement officers, detention and correctional
officers, caseworkers, social service providers, agency staff and
members of the community, to join in the study and development of
policies and programs to address racial disparities; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Legislature, the Governor and the
Supreme Court of Appeals should take immediate steps to develop,
implement and fund a collaborative and comprehensive community-
based plan to study and correct overrepresentation of minority
children and adults in the state's criminal and juvenile justice
systems, with particular attention to prevention of juvenile crime
through mentoring, diversion, recidivism-reduction strategies, in-
school and after-school programs, entrepreneurial education, job
training and placement alternatives, community-based sentencing for
nonviolent offenders and transition and reentry programs for
offenders upon completion of their sentences; and, be it
Further Resolved, That state agencies and the Legislature
should be encouraged to propose specific legislative proposals
where appropriate to facilitate these recommendations; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Clerk of the Senate is hereby
directed to forward a copy of this resolution to the Governor, the
Justices of the Supreme Court of Appeals, the President of the
Senate and the Speaker of the House of Delegates.