OP-ED: How we should actually spend that $276 million in Hope Scholarship funds

I’m a lifelong West Virginia native and a former student of West Virginia’s public education system. While enrolled in a Kanawha County public school, I vividly remember worrying that if I didn’t run fast enough to the lunch line, there might not be enough food left. The kitchen staff would regularly run out of that day’s lunch items and substitute pizza—or the fresh fruit and salad bar would run out. 

During my time pursuing adult education at Carver Career and Technical Education Center from 2023 to 2024, lack of funding was an issue again. The county cut a truly vital program that took at-risk teens to the trade school to recover credits, allowing them to graduate on time and with a trade.   

Our state’s funding crisis has been a plague on the public education system long before I was a student. Since the Hope Scholarship program began in 2021, these funding cuts have only gotten worse in every county in the state. The Hope Scholarship allows parents to use taxpayer money for public schools and put it toward private school tuition, microschools, homeschooling supplies or education services. 

This upcoming school year, the program will expand substantially, and every West Virginia student will be eligible. Our recently approved state budget includes $276 million to fund that—increasing the cost of the program by more than 400%, as West Virginia Watch reported. 

Meanwhile, our state lawmakers just voted to decrease public school funding by roughly $8 million, according to Mountain State Spotlight. 

One Kanawha County teacher told me she believes the Hope Scholarship is the reason why her district “hemorrhaged” so many students this year, losing nearly 1,000, per WCHS.  The county’s public school system will also be cutting around 140 jobs before the next school year. 

Taking money away from our already struggling public schools is contributing to greater staffing shortages—and lowering the ability for the teachers and staff that remain to provide a thriving learning environment. Without a thriving learning environment, many parents with means feel the obvious answer is to leave public schools altogether. 

Another teacher told me the Hope Scholarship “robs public education by essentially rewarding parents for removing their child from a public school.” She said “a reduction in student enrollment equals reduction in faculty and staff, which impacts quality of education.”

Speaking of quality of education, the spending regulations—and, in some cases, curriculum requirements—for receiving Hope Scholarship money are minimal. Kids have spent the money on iPads, dance lessons and water tables. 

And as for the homeschooling Hope Scholarship recipients, there’s concern that many are just trying to avoid truancy court. 

Nearly three-quarters of West Virginia kids who get pulled out of public schools to homeschool are chronically absent. That means they’ve missed 3.5 weeks of school—or more. But that won’t stop their parents from receiving the Hope Scholarship. 

“What is happening is students are flunking out of classes at school and not showing up for school,” one teacher told me. “So, [the parents] just say they are homeschooling them and take the money…They don’t do anything at homeschool, and they end up back with us the next year, even farther behind.” 

It’s true that the Hope Scholarship program has helped some families in populated regions of the state provide more specialized care for children with disabilities or unique needs.  But many families remain left out, due to a lack of infrastructure that could ever adequately utilize the Hope Scholarship. 

30 percent of all Hope Scholarship funding goes to just 10 religious schools in West Virginia, according to research from the West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy. That means these funds are not adequately serving the entire state as promised. 

Counties in the southern half of the state are not in reasonable proximity to programs that could benefit students with more complex educational needs. McDowell, Doddridge and Pocahontas counties don’t even have a single private school,  meaning students are not able to utilize the funds in their own counties. 

This reality is especially detrimental to poor, Black students in rural areas who are not in proximity to private schools. Students in the predominantly Black eastern coal camps of McDowell county, like Kimball and Keystone, would have to commute up to 40 minutes to Bluefield every day to use this program. And that’s only if they could afford the remaining tuition and find a way to get there. 

According to PolicyMap data from 2022, 16 percent of families don’t own a car in these McDowell County communities. McDowell County is the poorest in West Virginia, and this is the lowest rate of car access for any region in the three counties that don’t have private schools. 

This reality effectively eliminates the possibility for many families to use the Hope Scholarship. Maybe that’s why not a single child from McDowell County received the scholarship during the first two years of its existence. 

Students can not commute to educational institutions where none exist. The most disadvantaged West Virginia kids will always be excluded from the Hope Scholarship. 

And it’s worth noting that private schools aren’t required to admit students with disabilities. 

 “Some children have far more needs than others,” one teacher told me. “Charleston Catholic can choose not to accept those children. The students with greatest needs who will require more resources will be left behind.” 

That’s why those $276 million in Hope Scholarship funds would be better allocated to the severely underfunded public education system in this state. Public schools are available to everyone, and investing in them ensures everyone has equal access to education. 

The solution to the education needs gap isn’t going to come from a scholarship that cannot serve all children in need. It will come from utilizing this money to create accessible and efficient programs within the already state-funded public school system. 

So, why not opt for the “better” option?

According to a 2026 Rand Institute report, commissioned by the West Virginia House of Delegates, the cost for children’s educational needs varies widely based on many factors. 

These include access to resources, income and learning capabilities. Children from lower income homes or with learning disabilities typically require more funding than children without as many obstacles to education. 

That’s probably why the Rand study suggested lawmakers change West Virginia’s school funding formula to send more money to districts with higher percentages of special education students, poor students and students learning English as a second language. They also recommended capping the Hope Scholarship based on income, to lower costs. 

This advice fell on deaf ears—and wasted $114,000, which is how much taxpayer money it cost to produce the report. Our elected officials agreed to spend $276 million annually on the Hope Scholarship. They also ensured the Hope Scholarship will continue to have zero guardrails on who qualifies. And funds will continue being distributed equally, regardless of the type of needs a student may require. 

Without any nuance, children with a higher needs threshold will be left behind other children, who have more aptitude and access to opportunities. Rather than universally awarding funding to students without assessing their needs, funds could be directly invested into programs that support the most disadvantaged students. 

A good example of this is the program we used to have at Carver that took at-risk teens to our trade schools to recover credits, allowing them to graduate high school on-time. This is the kind of program we need to be spending taxpayer money on, not discounts on private school tuition for families who can already afford the full bill. And while we’re at it, let’s provide enough funding for public schools so that no West Virginia kid has to sprint to the cafeteria if they want a healthy lunch.