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State of the State Address 2018 Highlights


Gov. Jim Justice attempted to provide an optimistic outlook during the 2018 State of the State Address that differed from the grim outlook of last year’s speech.

“West Virginians were really hurting, and today you’re going to have a hard time to keep me from smiling,” Justice said.

In his 2018 State of the State Address, Justice covered a wide range of topics important to West Virginia, including several topics that directly affect Huntington citizens and students in the area. Topics ranged from his approach to fulfilling his promise to put an end to the state’s opioid crisis that he made during last year’s address to his plans for the future of education in West Virginia.

A standout moment from last night’s speech was Justice’s plan to further tackle the state’s opioid crisis, having already promised to help eliminate the crisis during last year’s State of the State Address. Justice announced that he enlisted the help of doctors from the West Virginia University Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute in discovering an efficient solution to the opioid crisis.

“I’m going to support them in every way that I possibly can in this strife to try to combat this terrible drug epidemic,” Justice said.

Later in the speech, Justice rolled out several plans for education in the state. These plans include several that he said he hopes will help public schools, such as increased flexibility and funding for school arts programs, the ability for high school students studying trades to earn their associates degree while still attending high school and a 1 percent salary increase for teachers every year for the next five years. Justice also announced that just hours before his speech, United States Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos called and informed him that West Virginia’s Every Student Succeeds Plan was passed.

Justice also unveiled his new Just Cut Taxes and Win plan, which he said that he wanted to make sure did not harm West Virginia colleges such as Marshall University. He followed this by announcing a joint effort with West Virginia Senator Mitch Carmichael to make community and technical colleges in the state free.

Although Justice exuded a positive ambiance toward the future of West Virginia colleges, not much information was shared during the speech about what he plans to do for these schools or how the next year will affect them. For students afraid of further cuts and raised tuition, they will have to wait and see how Justice’s positive outlook comes to fruition.

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