BECKLEY, WV (WOAY) – For 78 years, Raleigh County Schools has run a prosperous adult education program.
Now, House Bill 3452 seeks to take those programs away from county boards of education and put the community and technical college system at the helm.
This would impact the Academy of Careers and Technology.
“We’ve been contributing to the workforce of West Virginia in this area, a needed workforce,” said Charles Pack, Raleigh County Schools Director of Career Technical Education/Principal of ACT. “We’ve done great to teach adults in things like welding, practical nursing, HVAC, plumbing, cosmetology, truck driving, several programs, and they change over the years.”
According to Pack, public data shows that the school has an 85 percent completion rate and a 99 percent licensure rate.
“The community technical college system hovers in the 30% success rate,” the principal said. “We’ve done this for many years, with good results. We think it would hurt this workforce in Southern West Virginia by taking it out of our control.”
ACT says it’s important to be able to offer Raleigh County area new high school grads up to military veterans and beyond retraining with their adult education classes.
“We give them a program either from six weeks for something like truck driving or two years for something like welding or cosmetology, and they are not entangled in the things that go along with community college,” said the Raleigh County Schools Director. “They’re just here to get their training, get their certifications that they need to go to work and then go straight to work.”
With the ACT adult programs thriving over the years, Pack says it would be a shame to take those away.
“Put them into a system that has not done such a great job with them,” he said. “And then that West Virginia workforce could suffer and not have the quality of people they need for their businesses.”
HB 3452 was sent to the House Education Committee on March 17, 2025 and has yet to be voted on by the full House.
“We want to continue to make awareness of this in the people of Raleigh and surrounding counties,” said Pack. ” We’re also possibly going to have some legislation introduced that would let us take control of certificate programs.”
The principal urges everyone to vote NO on HB 3452.
“Because adult programs have proven successful under the guidance of local county boards of education in Career Technical Education Centers (CTE),” the Raleigh County Schools Director said.
