County school boards will be allowed to disregard how long a person has been teaching when choosing which workers to lay off. That means teachers who are more openly critical as well as union-oriented ones will become easy targets for punishment, while their quieter colleagues will be discouraged from speaking out. West Virginia students will be the ones left to suffer the consequences while their fiercest advocates are muzzled.

Beyond the way it suppresses our teachers’ ability to organize, the bill allows for the establishment of the state’s first charter schools.

In the version of the bill passed by the Senate, charter schools would face little regulation, and could be authorized by for-profit and political organizations. Teachers at these schools could be hired without certification or even a high school diploma, making it clear that this has little to do with student achievement.

Since the bill was introduced, educational organizations and boards across the state, as well as the president of the State Board of Education, have opposed it, noting that the establishment of such schools would be harmful to West Virginia’s children as public funds are sent away from district schools, with the greatest negative effect falling on already vulnerable and disadvantaged students; those are plentiful in a state with high rates of poverty.

Despite opposition from educational leaders, Mitch Carmichael, the president of the Senate, chose to rush the bill to a vote when he deliberately bypassed the Senate Finance Committee and established a committee of the whole in a rare action that’s only happened three times in state history.

Amid the negotiations taking place at the Capitol, union representatives gathered over the weekend and voted to approve another walkout, should teachers deem it necessary. Meanwhile, the bill is being revised by the House Education Committee and will go to a public hearing on Feb. 11. For now, its future, and that of West Virginia’s public school system, remains unclear.

But the troubling reality is this: West Virginia Senate Bill 451 is a subtle and manipulative attempt by state legislators to disenfranchise the voices of the community they were elected to amplify.

And just like West Virginia teachers set a strong precedent for organizers seeking equity in other states, legislation like this could set a dangerous precedent for politicians interested in using bullying tactics to silence the voices of their constituents, even at the expense of the state’s school children.

Lauren Peace (@LaurenMPeace) is a reporter from West Virginia currently reporting in Kosovo.