BILL WOULD ALLOW FIRING OF STRIKING W.VA. TEACHERS

West Virginia Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Patricia Rucker has introduced a bill in the Legislature that would allow striking teachers in the Mountain State to be fired. Work stoppages have occurred in two of the past three years in the Mountain State. Under the bill, county boards of education could instead order the prorated salary or hourly pay of a public employee to be forfeited for each day of their participation in a strike. County superintendents also would be barred from closing schools in anticipation of, or to facilitate, a strike.