Gov. Patrick Morrisey tells us the state faces a budget shortfall of $400,000,000 beginning July 1. Clearly, the Big Jim Justice Let-the-Good-Times-Roll Hoedown is over.
We are informed that the ritual boogymen, waste and inefficiencies, will be removed wherever found. Unfortunately if his projections are correct, we’re talking about more than inefficiencies or waste. Cutting the equivalent of 7% from the upcoming budget involves major surgery, and maybe life support if the state Legislature cuts taxes again and President Donald Trump reduces grants.
The governor made clear that all spending would be examined, including health and education. What is worrisome to me is that not all spending will examined equally. Some sacred cows might escape scrutiny, and one of the most popular with legislators in recent years has been the Hope Scholarship.
Upon hearing of the West Virginia Hope Scholarship, I assumed it was comparable to the Georgia program of the same name in which lottery revenues are set aside and designated for college scholarships. To make it even more appealing, Gov. Justice referred to it as a “savings account,” which made me think it was a state equivalent to an IRS 529 account which encourages parents to save for their children’s education.
I was wrong on all counts. Gov. Justice and several legislators wanted to support private schools, and they chose the name Hope Scholarship — no one’s against hope, scholarships or savings accounts. It’s none of these things, it’s a transfer of state funds to nonpublic schools.
In the 2024-25 school year nearly any West Virginia parent with school age children could have collected almost $5,000 per child to attend a private school, seemingly anywhere in the country. The state treasurer’s office projects it will rise to $5,300 per child in the fall. Hope started in 2022 spending $7 million. Given this year’s enrollment figures, it is likely to spend $40-$50 million. Projections from Hope staff exceed $100 million by the late 2020s, but if current enrollment trends continue, it will be significantly more than $100 million. In a era of budget cuts, such spending increases need to be justified.
Public education is always under the microscope. What schools do, how well they perform, and how much they spend generates constant reviews by legislators, state boards of education, local school boards, federal agencies as well as PTAs and individual parents. This is understandable. We want the best for our children; we want schools to actually educate and we want proof of academic progress.
While most of us don’t like standardized proficiency tests, they’re the best means we have to determine whether children are learning and progressing at similar levels with peer groups. In West Virginia the Department of Education compares aggregated test scores in math, reading and science for specific grade levels in specific schools, counties and statewide. National comparisons are also available.
It’s been obvious for the past few years that proponents of private schools have their sights on being the major participant in K-12 education. West Virginia is experiencing a steady growth in nonpublic enrollment and a steady decline in public school enrollment. Aforementioned proficiency test scores probably aid in the growth of private school attendance, but private schools have other advantages. To mention but one, they can pick and choose students. Public schools have no such luxury. Children who have significant learning, neurological, physical or emotional needs, or who are just a pain, are entitled to public educational services, not so private schools.
After watching Morrisey’s press conference on the budget my skeptical mind thought this would be the perfect pretext for opponents of public schools to sharpen the knives. No doubt they will. Numerous state legislators and perhaps the governor will see this as an opportunity to shift more spending from public to private education.
Everyone knows too many public schools are underperforming, but how are nonpublic schools doing? The WVDE Nonpublic School Information web pages seem comprehensive. My interest was nonpublic proficiency scores. The law stipulates several things in this regard: nonpublic schools must conduct achievement tests — they have leeway in choosing a testing service, but they must test in reading, math and science; the scores by grade and discipline must not average below the 40th percentile; and the results must be submitted to the WVDE annually. The information is ambiguous, but its better than nothing.
Unfortunately, nothing is what one finds when looking for test results. Public school test results are in every format: text, charts, colors, upper case, lower case, footnotes — you can’t miss them. Nonpublic schools, zilch. The information isn’t there. Not a single score. I inquired about this and was informed that nonpublic test results were unavailable to the public.
This is not the fault of the staff in the WVDE, they love data. The policy may be a carryover from pre-Hope days when private schools were actually private, i.e. received no public funds, and no one has thought to change it. It’s possible that legislators or the state board are unaware the results are treated as non-public data. Possibly there is a tacit understanding not to do it. On the other hand, I fear and I hope I’m wrong, that it could be to avoid embarrassment.
Obviously, some of the traditional nonpublic schools are top notch. Their teachers are well trained, their standards are high, their commitment to education is unquestioned. But in recent years we have moved from a couple of dozen “accredited” private schools to over a hundred “registered” private schools. Difference? Simply put, academic requirements are less rigorous for “registered” than for “accredited” nonpublic schools. Hence, it’s possible that some schools would prefer not to have their scores publicized. If this is the case it should stop.
Almost all nonpublic schools in West Virginia, and quite a few from other states, are drinking from the public tap. In the 2023/2024 school year 62 nonpublic schools received over $100,000 in public money. (Among these $112,855 went to a school in Maryland.) It won’t be surprising if in the next Hope Annual Report a few schools aren’t approaching $1,000,000.
If advocates of nonpublic schools ballyhoo their educational excellence to justify state funding, then precise, comparable data should be available to the public. The WV code mandates that scores be submitted to the WVDE, so, assuming the schools obey the law, the averaged scores reside in a computer somewhere. Publish the data. If we pour millions of dollars into schools, citizens have a right to know how well or poorly the schools educate. We do this for public schools, we should do no less for publicly supported private ones. This is especially important at a time when $400,000,000 is being rendered from the state budget.
