An editorial from The Herald-Dispatch
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Last month, members of the West Virginia Board of Education sent out the signal that it would consider letting county school systems off the hook for meeting the state’s requirement of conducting classes 180 days during the school year.
That signal – made by the board’s approval on March 11 of a process for counties to request a waiver from the requirement – was the wrong one.
But on Wednesday, the state board corrected that potential mistake by denying all county requests – from 27 of the state’s 55 county school systems – to be allowed to fall short of the 180-day standard.
That was the proper decision. It conforms to state law, and it underscores that providing a full school year of instruction is important to West Virginia’s children. The decision also takes into account that county school systems now have much more flexibility in designing yearly school calendars…
