Editor’s Note
This article was produced in partnership with the ProPublica Local Reporting Network. ProPublica is supporting seven local and regional newsrooms this year, including the Gazette-Mail, as they work on important investigative projects affecting their communities.
By KEN WARD JR.
Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — It was a warm Monday afternoon in late February. Thousands of teachers, public school employees and supporters rallied on the steps of West Virginia’s Capitol building, on the banks of the Kanawha River in Charleston.
Schools in all 55 counties were closed again. Teachers, cooks and janitors were in the third day of a strike. They wanted pay raises and a fix to the skyrocketing cost of their health insurance.
On the other end of the state, at a town hall meeting with teachers in Wheeling, Gov. Jim Justice tossed out a possible solution: Fund the pay raises with an increase in taxes on the state’s booming natural gas industry.
Read the entire article: https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/coal-extracted-a-steep-price-now-gas-is-taking-wv/article_bfdbafbd-d2cc-5c1c-8a2c-a6a3b090d9d6.html
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