Whatever Happened to Pauley vs. Bailey? The Story of the Politics of Education in West Virginia!

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106

Activism; Centralization; Consolidated Schools; Court Litigation; Disadvantaged; Disadvantaged Schools; Educational Change; Educational Discrimination; Educational Equity (Finance); Educational Finance; Educational History; Elementary Secondary Education; Equal Education; Politics of Education; Poverty; Property Taxes; Rural Schools

This report looks at recent educational history in West Virginia, particularly in Lincoln County, where school conditions stemming from poverty and politics resulted in the historic 1982 decision by Judge Arthur Recht. The Recht Decision found that the state's public schools failed to meet the "thorough and efficient" standard demanded by the West Virginia Constitution. It ordered that school financing be restructured to provide the same educational opportunities to all children, regardless of property values in their counties. The task of formulating and implementing a Master Plan to satisfy the Recht Decision was given to the State Department of Education, an action deplored by reform activists. While the Master Plan resulted in increased supplies and equipment in poor schools and equalization of teachers' salaries across counties, it also led to massive school consolidation, the burden of which fell disproportionately on children in poor rural counties. This report draws on interviews with teachers, students, administrators, government officials, and parents to explore the Recht Decision and its impact on state education policy and state tax policy. Sections examine the conditions leading to Pauley v Bailey; the Recht Decision and its immediate aftermath; the history of tax inequities in West Virginia, where coal companies and other corporations have paid minimal taxes; formulas and other mechanisms used to allocate school funds; social, economic, and educational inequities and the politics that sustain them; opposition to and impacts of consolidation; recent court decisions revisiting the Recht Decision and its unfinished business; and recommendations. (SV)

1999

ED426839