Photo courtesy of WV Legislative Photography West Virginia Sen. Charlie Clements, R-Wetzel, recently discussed issues he’s been looking at as chairman of the Senate Education Committee.

WHEELING — West Virginia Sen. Charles Clements, vice chairman of the Senate Education Committee, says spending on education in the state is “upside down” and more money should be spent on its youngest learners.

Clements, R-Wetzel, said he spent a lot of time last summer looking at what the education committee needs to address during this year’s legislative session that begins Feb. 12.

“We have discipline problems with kindergarten-type children and not just at the high schools,” he said. “We are seeing a lot of discipline problems in kindergarten, and finding a solution is going to be difficult.”

When students at the high school and middle school levels are found to have discipline problems, the larger school districts in the state often move them to a centralized alternative school within the district. But not all counties have these schools because the state is so rural and daily transport to the central location may not be feasible, according to Clements.

Beyond that, school districts typically have no alternative school for elementary students.

“Maybe our spending is upside down because our focus is on post-secondary education,” Clements said. “We need to put more money into the early stages of life where children learn more.

“It goes back to the fact that children don’t have parents anymore. Many of them are being raised by their grandparents, great-grandparents or other relatives because of home problems.”

He acknowledges the Legislature is going to have to address the funding school districts are losing due to the Hope Scholarship and that in general the school grant formula “needs to be looked at.”

Another education-related issue likely to come before the Legislature is that of school consolidation, according to Clements.

Within his district, Wetzel County Schools is enacting al consolidation plan that would send Hundred High School students to Valley High School and Paden City students to Magnolia High School.

“There is a move by some people to stop any school consolidation. It will be Interesting to see if it works out,” Clements said. “With consolidation, you have to look at it on a case-by-case basis. There are some cases where it is necessary and needed, others where it is not.

“The problem we have in Wetzel County is a lack of teachers. They are trying to staff four high schools, and the question is do we have enough qualified teachers? This (consolidation) is going to have to happen.”

Population loss is also a valid reason for school consolidation, he continued.

Clements said there is a move in Tyler County to consolidate two elementary schools. The schools were built at a time when there were 1,200 elementary students, and now that number is down to 500.