West Virginia has remained in the lowest spot in terms of workforce participation since 1976 when the Bureau of Labor Statistics began consistently reporting, Brian Lego, WVU’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research stated in a piece from 2019. This state has bottomed out on workforce participation for almost the entire span of my life. and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better.
I’ve read a bit about this and I’ve already prepared myself for the pushback of, “there are jobs everywhere but people don’t want to work!” My response is this: non-livable wages shouldn’t be our choice. I did an internet search for the biggest employers in the state of West Virginia, and health care was dominating the list. Those are skilled jobs that require training and education, for the most part. So, what is that the problem? The education? Because I’ve had conversations about that this week, as well.
A few years ago, my county schools used the slogan, “Inspiring Dreams.” One evening, I was in a meeting with the superintendent at my kid’s elementary school, which was in our low income/high need neighborhood. I knew what the homes across the street looked like. I knew when the playground became unsafe for young children. I knew the risks those kids lived with every day because I was raising two of those kids.
The super reminded me of the slogan. I remember saying, “Go to (the principal’s) office and look outside. Tell me what kinds of dreams you see being inspired here.” It wasn’t long after that comment that the meeting was deemed over. That remains my top reason as to why the public education in West Virginia is failing; dreams aren’t visible when you pull back the curtains.
A Storybook Ending?
Some people will name the opioid problem as the cause. Some will say it’s because people are lazy and are making a living off of the welfare system, which is a whole lie by the way; I know a parent of three who received the $300+ a month who will explain the truth to you. The fact of the matter is, the stuff dreams are made of seems far away. Watching your parents struggle to make ends meet doesn’t really feel like a fairytale. Watching your peers get drunk and high because they’re unhappy and miserable doesn’t seem like a storybook ending.
So why, if there doesn’t seem to be an overabundance of opportunity out here, do we expect kids coming from families who are living the struggle to believe that education is the way out?
I dreamed of being a teacher when I was a little girl and, although middle class here, they walked out of the classroom for two years in a row to fight for better wages and better health insurance. If the teachers, who are probably the fanciest and smartest people some of these kiddos know, are struggling, then what hope does someone have whose parents are essential employees and still qualify for food stamps?!?!
We have to start talking about economic justice here in West Virginia. We have to start demanding opportunity and pushing for a life that requires striving for! We need to focus on the way one system relies upon the others in order to promote real change.
The American Dream
For example, I worked with a group of community members last year from a county in the eastern panhandle who wanted a child care center in their county. The conversation started because a community member was asking about the high unemployment rate, which was one of the highest in the state, and then realized that there was no childcare. In his words, it isn’t rocket science. According to Census data, there were over 1,000 households in that county reported to be led by unmarried women/mothers.
Woah, right? So, in a small county with a high unemployment rate, over 1,000 women could be lacking a childcare option. And we wonder why the women weren’t working? That’s just the stats from one county and believe me when I say there are several without childcare options or with insufficient ones.
My beliefs are that everyone who can work should work, but I know the challenges people here face when wanting to enter our workforce. We need to start having conversations with our lawmakers about what supports are needed to move families from dependent to independent so we can make West Virginia more economically just.
I know for a fact that most of us are doing the best we can with what we have, and it’s time that we push our state government to roll back policies that prevent us from pursuing the American Dream. It’s time we build opportunities in our state so the Mountain Mama can inspire dreams again.
Amy Jo
