04-02-2025
What does ‘school choice' mean for West Virginians?
CLARKSBURG, (WBOY) — Last week, Gov. Patrick Morrisey issued a proclamation declaring that the week of Jan. 26 would be known as 'School Choice Week' in West Virginia. But in a state plagued by school closures and consolidations, what does 'school choice' mean for West Virginians?
Following his inauguration in January, Gov. Morrisey issued Executive Order 2-25, which vowed to set school choice as a priority of his administration. In that order, he outlined how things like the Hope Scholarship and House Bill 2012 passed in 2021—which expanded the process of establishing public charter schools—will 'give West Virginia's families yet another choice in pursuing and achieving their children's educational goals.'
Also in that order, Gov. Morrisey laid out that his office would collaborate with the West Virginia Legislature to 'ensure that West Virginia has the broadest and most effective school choice laws in the nation' as well as 'dedicate any necessary resources to ensure that the school choice programs established in West Virginia succeeded.'
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U.S. News and World Report says that 'school choice' is a term advocates use to refer to programs and policies that let families use public funds to send their children to schools outside of their local school system, such as private schools and homeschooling.
In West Virginia, school choice comes primarily through the Hope Scholarship, a state-run Educational Savings Account that allows parents to 'utilize the state portion of their education funding to tailor an individualized learning experience,' according to its website.
The Hope Scholarship provides a varying amount of money to recipients each year based on the funding per pupil that county boards of education receive across the state.
For the 2024-2025 school year, the full scholarship amount was $4,921.39. Private school data website Private School Review reported that the average cost of attending a West Virginia private school for the 2024-25 school year was $6,400.
This scholarship money comes from a special revenue fund in the state treasury that pulls a flexible amount of funding from the West Virginia Department of Education based on how many scholarship applications the program thinks it will receive that year.
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The Hope Scholarship is currently only available to students entering kindergarten, but starting in 2026, it will expand to all West Virginia students. This announcement brought criticism toward the scholarship, including from the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, (WVCBP) which said that students enrolled in similar programs in other states performed worse than public school students.
The WVCBP said in December 2023 that Hope Scholarship money has the possibility of winding up with unaccredited schools and that $1.7 million had as of that point. It added that the state public education system was expected to lose $21.6 million during the 2024-25 school year to fund the Hope Scholarship.
Then-West Virginia State Treasurer Riley Moore voiced his support for the scholarship in August 2024 and said that opening education up to the marketplace will improve test scores as private and public schools compete with each other to attract students. He added that he trusts the parents to choose the best school for their children.
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