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Moore needs to hold his horses on Hope expansion

West Virginia Treasurer Riley Moore is pushing to quickly grow the Hope Scholarship. He’s asking for a year-round application period, which currently only runs March 1 to May 15, and for scholarship funds to be dispersed quarterly instead of twice a year. He’s also advocating for the Hope Scholarship to be available to all West Virginia students. Right now, only kids leaving the public school system or just entering kindergarten are eligible, but existing legislation contains the option to expand the scholarship to current private and home-schooled students as well by 2026. Moore ...

Tarr would let WVU flounder so he can own the libs

Recently, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, sent a letter to state and university officials objecting to the drastic cuts at West Virginia University and imploring the state to help. Sen. Eric Tarr (R-Putnam), the Senate Finance chair, responded last week in a rebuttal filled with name-calling and right-wing buzzwords. Reasonable people can disagree about whether the West Virginia Legislature should have kept up funding levels in the past and whether the state should provide financial assistance to WVU now. But Tarr’s comments reveal that he ...

Forgotten value of liberal arts

There’s a disheartening national trend where universities, as they contend with declining student enrollment and less government funding, shift their focus and narrow their offerings so earning a degree becomes less about education and more about job preparation. However, there is value in a liberal arts education that can’t be recorded on paper — and that many won’t even realize until long after they’ve graduated from college. When you’re a student, the general education classes in English, foreign languages, philosophy, art and history all seem like irrelevant ...

Love animals? Here are some ways to show it

WVAQ’s Just Jaime will be “ruffin’” it (to borrow Erin Cleavenger’s pun) outside of The Glass Factory in Star City this weekend. She’ll be pitching her tent in the parking lot as part of the Camping for Canines fundraiser for Animal Friends of North-Central West Virginia. She’s aiming to get $10,000 in whatever way she can — cash, credit or coin (hold the pocket lint). For those who don’t carry cash anymore, Jaime and Animal Friends will gladly take payments via PayPal or Venmo. Animal Friends runs a nonprofit, no-kill shelter that provides veterinary services, ...

Press pause on ‘safety’ ordinance

For months, as he has crafted his not-a-panhandling-ordinance, Monongalia County Commissioner Tom Bloom has repeatedly said his proposal is based on an Alabama law that prohibits panhandling. So what is the Alabama law? The better question is “which one?” The Alabama Code of 1975 had two anti-panhandling statutes: §13A-11-9, which said someone commits the crime of loitering if he/she “[l]oiters, remains, or wanders about in a public place for the purpose of begging,” and §32-5A-216, which said “No person shall stand on a highway for the purpose of soliciting ...

WVU walkout a good start, but it will take more

On Monday, WVU students staged a walkout and protest in objection to the preliminary recommendations that call for cutting 32 majors and 169 faculty positions. We are proud of all the people — especially the students — who showed up outside the Mountainlair and on the Rec Center fields. It takes courage to show up — in person, no less — to protest for something you believe in. And hundreds of students, staff, faculty and community members showed up. We admire the bravery, passion and dedication they demonstrated. We fear, however, they’re efforts will be for ...