SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 79
(By Senators McCabe, Jenkins and Foster)
Requiring the State Superintendent of the Department of Education
develop and present a plan to implement a new quality-driven
process improvement philosophy that will address the redesign
of the state's public education system.
Whereas, Public education consumes 47 percent of West
Virginia's Annual General Revenue Fund with annual expenditures in
excess of $1.8 billion; and
Whereas, West Virginia is ranked seventh by percentage
increase in teacher salary increases (growth) since 2005; and
Whereas, The total salary and benefit needs of teachers and
support personnel exceed the State of West Virginia's annual budget
for public education; and
Whereas, The public education system in West Virginia has
developed incrementally over time and, in some cases, has become
disjointed, cumbersome, inefficient, and lacks the effectiveness
that is desired by students, parents, teachers, support personnel,
administration and the Legislature; and
Whereas, The amount of funding needed to adequately address
the salary and benefits of teachers and support personnel can only
reasonably come from redesigning the system of public education in
West Virginia; and
Whereas, Successful systems redesign depends on the
involvement of a cross section of employees of the State Department
of Education and the county school systems in identifying needed
changes, developing a plan to implement changes and accepting the
significant changes as a part of how they perform their jobs; and
Whereas, Significant systems change must include defining the
problems, including current benchmarks, setting of annual goals and
targets, measuring the inputs and outputs, analyzing the data,
designing simplified and improved processes, and overseeing the
process implementation to assure benefits and sustain continuous
improvement; and
Whereas, Creating significant and meaningful change in the
public education system in West Virginia is a multiyear, systemwide
endeavor; therefore, be it
Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Legislature hereby requires the Superintendent of the
Department of Education to develop and present a plan to implement
a new quality-driven process improvement philosophy that will
address the redesign of the state's public education system; and,
be it
Further Resolved, That the Superintendent present to the
Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability a
redesign plan for the public education system within the Department
of Education and the 55 county school systems that reflects the philosophy set forth in this resolution. This plan shall include
the training of a work group, consisting of at least one hundred
participants who proportionally represent department employees,
county administrators, public school teachers and support
personnel, in bench marking metrics and problem solving
methodology. This group will work with in-house experts or
consultants to disseminate new definitions of performance
expectations for quality outcomes and encourage and direct on-going
system redesign to ensure efficient and effective public education
delivery; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the plan would be designed to be
implemented in phases over four years with up to seventy-five
percent of the operating cost savings to be redirected to salary
and benefits for employees of the public education system; and, be
it
Further Resolved, That the Superintendent of the Department of
Education shall make an annual report to the Legislative Oversight
Commission on Education Accountability.
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