Court Opinion

ID: 9565703
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:26:15.191145+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:50.121569
License: Public Domain

McGRAW, Justice,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent from the majority’s holding that county boards of education, when faced with the defeat of a special levy, may cut teacher and service personnel salaries, while maintaining, at current levels, expenditures for capital improvements, administrative salaries, and noninstructional supplies.
As noted by the majority, West Virginia Code, 18A-4-5 (1984 Replacement Vol), provided, at the time this litigation was initiated, that “no county ... shall reduce local funds allocated for instructional salaries ... unless forced to do so by failure of a special levy, or a loss in assessed values, or state aid, or events over which it has no control.” In my view, this provision, in accordance with the constitutional mandate that, “The legislature shall provide, by general law, for a thorough and efficient system of schools,” W.Va. Const, art. XII, 10, establishes “instruction” as the core of our educational system.
Teachers are the heart of the instructional component of our educational system. Without quality craftsmanship, the finest tools and raw materials would produce no works of art. Without quality teachers, the finest facilities and the brightest students would produce no great scholars. At a time when financial resources are diminishing for education in this State, hard choices must be made.
Again, as the majority notes, West Virginia Code, 18-9B-8 (1984 Replacement Vol.), establishes priorities to assist county boards of education in making these hard choices. First, capital expenditures should be postponed. Second, expenditures for noninstructional supplies should be decreased. Third, noninstructional days should be reduced. Fourth, salary supplements should be cut. Finally, adjustments should be made in other budget items to assure the instructional term.
The majority implicitly holds that if no specific finding is made regarding possible reduction of the school term, this list of priorities does not apply. This permits a school board to avoid application of the statute by merely failing to make such finding. If reduction in revenue is imminent, such as after the defeat of a special levy, a school board may immediately reduce teacher and service personnel salaries without considering other viable alternatives, such as postponement of new construction or purchase of new school buses, until another special levy election can be held or additional sources of revenue can be located. Not only does this conflict with the spirit, if not the letter, of the applicable statutes, it seriously undermines the instructional component of our educational system.
Much lip service is paid to education in this State, but little is truly accomplished. Our educational system is neither thorough *111nor efficient. Promises unfulfilled have left our teachers bitter and struggling to make ends meet. Some of our best teachers have left altogether. The tea and sympathy offered by the majority does little to offer any hope of change.