P.O. Box 2006
Princeton WV, 24740
Charlie Maynard, Executive Director

Jodi Mote, President

____________________________________________________________________________________
January 31, 2019
Legislative Leadership,

The Executive Directors of the WVSACA wish to address concerns we have with three key elements of Senate Bill
451. We wish to address these key elements to vividly describe how each will hurt public education and
extracurricular activities in the Mountain State. The first issue we have is that school choice could drain our already
troubled public-school budgets. Next, we know that ‘charter schools’ will be allowed to make their own rules,
therefore not having to abide by the state BOE rules which the WVSSAC enforce. Finally, charter schools and other
non-public institutions of learning may attract kids from out of their home attendance zone. This could lead to the
non-academic recruitment of students. This act is strictly prohibited by the WV State BOE and the WVSSAC.
The budgets of most public schools in WV are already extremely tight. If charter schools can take money away
from public education budgets, public school’s co-curricular activities and extracurricular activities will be the first
options to be cut. If Senate Bill 451 passes, public school students will miss out on academic field trips and clubs,
performing arts, and athletic programs that enhance the well-rounded education of our children. We cannot lose
money to charter schools and still provide comprehensive courses and more intense activities to our students.
Charter schools can make their own rules including deciding their academic courses, their class rigors or lack
thereof, their school day, and their discipline policies. All of these are very important pieces in deciding who can
participate in WVSSAC sanctioned events. If we do not have consistent policies across the board, we will have
chaos regarding who can participate from charter schools.
In recent years, our state has really clamped down on students transferring for athletic reasons and coaches
illegally recruiting student athletes. If we introduce charter schools to our state, the transferring and recruiting for
athletic purposes will explode. Students will move to charter schools choosing to play for programs that are not in
their home attendance zone. This does not promote the academic-based athletics that our students need to learn
responsibility and discipline.
In closing, we at the WVSACA cherish academic based extracurricular activities. Our association does not want to
see charter schools and ESA’s become law. We do not want to see our public-school extracurricular activities shut
down because of lost funding! We do not support SB 451 as it is currently crafted. WV does not need more school
choice. WV needs a legislative body that will fund our educational system properly, make our students and parents
accountable for their actions, and seek the best practices from the talented teachers we have in our great state!

Yours in Education,
The Executive Committee of the WVSACA
Jodi Mote, Brad Jett, Jamie Tallman,
Ralph Hensley, Joe Dean, Wes Eddy,
Charles Maynard, Brad Dingess, John Kelley,
Mark Montgomery, and Robert Mullett