Listen carefully to what Justice did not concede

Jan. 11—Gov. Jim Justice ought to learn some manners.

In his eighth and final State of the State address on Wednesday night, the governor — as we predicted — spent a good bit of time giving himself a big ol' self-congratulatory pat on the back. We did not know he was so limber to be able to tie himself into a pretzel just so he could take credit — often, where it was not due.

He characterized West Virginia as "a dark tunnel" when he was elected back in 2016, saying the state was bankrupt with both jobs and people packing up and heading elsewhere. "Our spirit was broken," he said, missing the mark by a country mile or more.

He did not say a word about all of the federal dollars that came flooding into the state to help float our collective boat because he would have had to thank President Joe Biden, a Democrat, a politician he has relentlessly criticized for failing "on every front" with West Virginia "paying the price."

And, of course, that is not true. And all you had to do was listen to what the governor was not saying.

In yet another one of his trademark, staged presentations, Justice — a far better marketer in chief than chief executive — had a banner unfurled in the well of the House that showed $13.4 billion in state investments since he had taken office back in 2017. But what the banner did not show, and what the governor did not say, is that about $8 billion of that, as reported by Mountain State Spotlight, came from the Biden administration's pandemic relief programs and major infrastructure laws, including $1.2 billion to transform broadband access in the state and nearly $4 billion in road and bridge investments.

And while the governor was spending a good bit of time mentioning businesses that had relocated to the state, he did not mention Form Energy's Weirton battery plant, one of the most high-profile economic development projects in the state in recent history. Why? Well, that move was largely the result of federal incentives and tax credits provided via the Inflation Reduction Act, a clean energy measure written in part by Sen. Joe Manchin that the governor had characterized as "a bad, bad move."

If that were not telling enough, Justice took credit for making education the centerpiece of what he saw as the state's revitalization. Clearly, before writing his speech, he did not check student performance scores this past year when fewer than half of students in the state tested proficient in math and reading. Additionally, Mountain State students had not returned to pre-pandemic proficiency rates and were lagging their peers across much of the country.

Great job, Big Jim.

The data, available on ZoomWV on the West Virginia Department of Education website, shows 44 percent of West Virginia's third- through eighth-graders and 11th-graders were deemed proficient in reading and 35 percent were deemed proficient in mathematics, according to 2022-23 testing scores. And those scores were down from the prepandemic school year of 2018-19 when 46 percent of students were deemed proficient in reading and 39 percent were proficient in mathematics.

The governor reminded us that his father often counseled him that "if you can't get it done in 24 hours a day, you got to work nights."

Well, as we look around at the ruins and remains of what this governor has left in his wake, we would suggest that he did not practice what he preached. And, in fact, spent too much time asleep at the wheel.

Thumbs down, governor. — By J. Damon Cain, editor of The Register-Herald

Thumbs up to winners of the Herbert Henderson Office of Minority Affairs' Project on Racism Contest and the 40th annual poster contest.

Winners from across the state were selected in essay, song, and film categories as well as the poster artwork competition.

Several students in southern West Virginia were among the winners in every category.

Presented by the Martin Luther King Jr. State Holiday Commission and the YWCA Wheeling, the Project on Racism Contest entries were accepted from any student in grades 1-12 attending public, private, parochial or home school in West Virginia.

All entries had to focus on King's statement, "Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."

Presented by the Martin Luther King Jr. State Holiday Commission and the Beta Beta Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, the 40th annual poster competition was open to West Virginia students in grades K-12.

The poster entries had to center on King's statement, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." — By Mary Catherine Brooks

of The Wyoming County Report

for The Register-Herald.