Future of 55 PAC

04/21/2022

Hey everyone! We're announcing endorsements for candidates for State Legislature.

We made it a point to only endorse

1. individuals who we have endorsed in the past

or

2. individuals who filled out a questionnaire for us this year with positive responses.

We also decided to stick mainly to the areas surrounding the Cabell / Southern West Virginia area. If you would like information about someone in any district or thoughts about someone running that we haven't endorsed, we would be happy to help.

If you believe we accidentally left someone off the list who should have been included, let us know!

04/02/2022

For all politicians running for office in West Virginia ... please fill out our questionnaire for endorsements in the upcoming primaries!

Please answer the following questions to the best of your ability. Keep in mind that no one individual answer will guarantee our support, nor will any answer automatically disqualify you from our support.

03/05/2022

Brian Casto, West Virginia Teacher of the Year, has a few things on his mind ... see what he has to say about teacher shortages!

My name is Brian Casto and I’m the 2022 West Virginia Teacher of the Year and I’m sounding the alarm about the teacher shortage. For the past two years, our state, our nation, and our worlds have been flipped upside down. “Mandates”, “masks”, “protocols”, and other vocabulary like .....

02/13/2022

It's been a while folks, but please read ... and share!

"Time to return to the fight!"

The pandemic has exhausted teachers, and considering the two years before the Covid era, West Virginia teachers have endured quite a bit. And yet, we find ourselves again in a precarious situation because the state legislature wants to fundamentally alter the job of public school teachers in ways th...

06/18/2021

Not at all sad

West Virginia's Supreme Court has turned back a petition from a group hoping to open the state's first charter school. School boards in Monongalia and Preston counties in November denied separate applications from the West Virginia Academy. The academy petitioned the high court to try to force the s...

02/20/2021

Please contact members of the Education Committees in both the House and the Senate in West Virginia. Here's a standard letter you may use if you aren't sure what to say:

I wanted to address a few issues with regard to education bills under consideration in the Legislature. I am concerned with a number of the bills. I’m struggling to understand the logic behind the following concepts:

- The expansion of charter schools, including virtual charters
- Significantly reduced qualifications to obtain a teaching certificate
- Attempts to outlaw strikes by teachers
- A proposed ban on teaching sexuality (an extremely broad concept that would be problematic for many reason)
- Elimination of teacher pay for advanced degrees
- Educational Savings Accounts
- Attempts to limit the teaching of ‘divisive’ content

I would welcome an opportunity to discuss any of these issues in person. Also, what data was consulted in the creation of these bills? Were teachers or other educational professionals included in their writing?

Feel free to contact me any time!

Senate Education Committee (each member has an email address listed on their page) https://www.wvlegislature.gov/committees/senate/SenateCommittee.cfm?Chart=ed

House Education Committee https://www.wvlegislature.gov/committees/house/HouseCommittee.cfm?Chart=ed

02/17/2021

The 2021 WV Legislative session summed up in one picture 🤦‍♂️🤬🙄😭

02/17/2021

Keep up with all the bad going through our legislature! This is the payback session they have been craving since the movement began 🤬🤬🤬

West Virginia GOP leadership is attempting to pass some bills that would be detrimental to public education in the Mountain State!

02/17/2021

Friends of Public Education: Bad Bills are out there ...

West Virginia GOP leadership is attempting to pass some bills that would be detrimental to public education in the Mountain State!

02/05/2021

This was shared on another site but it was too funny, we had to post 😂 Enjoy your weekend!!!

01/29/2021

If you had any false hope about this legislative session, here is a question from the Senate education survey (committee chaired by Rucker, Karnes & Azinger 🤮)
https://joint.wvlegislature.gov/education-survey/

12/09/2020

"Where do teachers go from here?" Please read, share, and donate! The 2020 Elections didn't go as planned, but we have some ideas about the future!

What's next for West Virginia teachers? We have a few suggestions and we encourage you to get involved in the political process!