In a very direct address, state Superintendent Michael Martirano told business and political officials Tuesday morning that more needs to be done to attract qualified teachers to West Virginia schools.
During his speech, which was given as part of the South Charleston Chamber of Commerce's annual Groundhog Day Breakfast, Martirano said below-average teaching salaries and the ongoing budget issues with the Public Employees Insurance Agency make it difficult for the state to attract the type of educators it needs.
"When our salaries are number 47 in the country, I am handicapped and crippled," he said.
According to information from the Department of Education, there are about 593 teaching positions in West Virginia that are filled by educators who aren't fully certified, including 231 special education, 64 math, 26 science and 21 English positions. McDowell County alone has about 70 positions that don't have a fully qualified staff member in place, Martirano said.
"You should be moved by that," he told the local and state business leaders. "We have a major crisis and I am not one to ring the bell and use the C-word lightly."
Those vacancies represent about 2.5 percent of the state's professional educator positions in the K-12 system.
Since taking over the state superintendent role in September 2014, Martirano said it has been his goal to "immerse" himself in West Virginia. He said he has traveled all 55 counties, trying to learn about the schools and education systems in the varying parts of the state.
"I have learned all things West Virginia, from the Northern Panhandle to the southern coalfields," he said.
As he has driven from one corner of the state to the other, Martirano said it was his intention to understand the difficulties that students face in West Virginia.
In a state that has some of the worst workforce statistics in the country, Martirano said business officials and West Virginians as a whole need to recognize the benefits of children getting a good education.
The academic research is settled, Martirano said, and it shows that people who graduate high school are less likely to be addicted to drugs, are less likely to end up in the juvenile justice system and are more likely to be productive members of society.
For people who bemoan public spending on education, he said they should recognize that it costs thousands of dollars more on average to incarcerate someone, compared to giving them a high school diploma.
In many ways, Martirano said he believes West Virginia's schools have improved, including the jump in high school graduation rates around the state, which now stand at 86.5 percent on average.
"You, as local business officials, need to tune into that," he said, adding that he intends to bring that number up to 90 percent in the next couple years.
At a time when the state continues to lose jobs in industries like mining, which don't require higher education, Martirano said it is essential that every young person receive the basic educational tools that will allow them to succeed.
Martirano suggested that West Virginia may be behind the curve in realizing that most of the jobs of tomorrow aren't going to be manual labor positions that can be obtained with a high school diploma and steady work ethic.
"Our society has shifted," he said.
When Martirano thinks about education, he looks 13 years ahead to when the children in kindergarten now will be graduating from high school. He asked the people at the Chamber breakfast to think about how much the world and technology has changed in the last 13 years and to think about what the world will be like by 2029.
"They will have to solve problems that have yet to be defined," Martirano said, referring to the children who are just entering school.
Martirano said that he is not one to disparage or to constantly focus on negative aspects. He has tried to change the dialogue surrounding education in West Virginia, Martirano said, so students aren't always hearing that they can't succeed.
When students incessantly hear that it is impossible for them to succeed, that is what they start to believe, he said.
But he also pointed out that not all students are being offered the same opportunity in West Virginia, especially when they don't have fully qualified teachers available to teach them.
"A young person can't help the ZIP code they are born into," he said.
Education is supposed to be "the great equalizer," giving everyone the opportunity to improve their economic position in society, he said.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we are not delivering on that promise to our children," he said.
Martirano told the crowd that he has tried to represent the best interests of the children of West Virginia every day.
"Our children are who I work for," he said.
When he has policy conversations with politicians or other officials in the state, Martirano said he always waits to see how long it takes people to actually mention the students - the people most directly impacted by those policies.
"Our children have placed their hope in our hands. They are voiceless in our political process," Martirano said.
Reach Andrew Brown at andrew.brown@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4814, or follow @andy_ed_brown on Twitter.