Issue Position: Excellence in Education

Issue Position

West Virginia faces many challenges, but education is our biggest and most important. We need to completely overhaul our education system because we are failing our kids; we are failing our employers; and we are failing our future. We can't lose another generation of children to a failed education system. If employers don't come to West Virginia because of the work force, it's our fault and we need to do something about it -- and we need to start now.

Bill Cole will end Common Core and have state educators, parents, business leaders and higher education leaders create West Virginia College and Career Ready Standards. The state will responsibly end its participation in the Smarter Balanced test and establish a West Virginia based test that is rigorous and based on local standards. The new system will be adopted with full transparency and will not be Common Core by another name.

To better prepare our students to achieve and improve literacy skills, Bill Cole will seek to create a Read by Third Grade West Virginia program to identify early reading deficiencies, notify parent and establish intensive reading interventions and tutoring for students in need of help. Under the program, any student who cannot read at the end of third grade will be held back.

Taking a business approach to the administration of education, Bill Cole will find savings within the Department of Education to provide teachers with a pay raise and put more technology in the classrooms including a statewide broadband network with access for every school.

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