Public schools across the Mountain State have been working to overcome challenges to high-quality and equitable public education including declining student enrollment, insufficient funding, and diversion of funding and resources to the Hope Scholarship. With little progress made to address these challenges during the regular legislative session, school districts have been forced to resort to…
Education
59 News - The West Virginia Center for Budget and Policy found in 2023 that West Virginia places children in foster at the highest rate of any state in the country, four times the national average. Read the full article. The study found that while West Virginia had only 0.5% of the national population, 2.2%…
The Inter-Mountain - “Together for Public Schools” a focus group from the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy held a Town Hall meeting May 19 at Phil Gainer Center. Sarah Duncan, who spoke at Kump Center in March, returned to Elkins with a PowerPoint presentation full of information about the harms of using tax…
Charleston Gazette-Mail - AmeriCorps is a vital engine for progress in our state, and the recent decision to cancel $3 million in AmeriCorps grants in West Virginia represents a major setback. These cuts threaten to derail disaster response efforts, disrupt support for students who need it most and weaken the infrastructure of national service at…
Intermountain - A “Town Hall” on public education will be offered Monday in Elkins, although no representatives from the Randolph County Board of Education plan to take part, officials said. Read the full article. Together For Public Schools West Virginia will hold a Public Education Town Hall Meeting and Q&A Monday at the Phil Gainer…
Parkersburg News and Sentinel - A town hall meeting concerning the impact of school closures on education will be held from 6-7:30 p.m. Monday in the banquet room at the Worthington Golf Course. Read the full article. The meeting, which will include a time for questions and answers, is sponsored by the Parkersburg Area Labor…
Following this year’s regular legislative session, the need for sufficient funding and support for public schools remains. Although several bills were introduced this session to modernize the school funding formula, prevent school closures, and provide increased pay and benefits for school employees, none of these bills passed. Meanwhile, the legislature approved continued funding for the…
Hampshire Review - The Hope Scholarship is an education savings account program available for K-12 students. It is an entitlement program that allows parents to use the state portion of their child’s education funding to provide individualized schooling for their child. For the 2024-2025 school year, just under $5,000 is being provided to each scholarship…
Children in West Virginia are constitutionally guaranteed a thorough and efficient system of free schools provided by the legislature. In recent years, our public education system has faced mounting challenges including declining enrollment, declining state revenues due to tax cuts, increased disinvestment through the Hope Scholarship, and threats to federal funding and support for public…
Governing - If you ask teachers and principals in West Virginia, they’ll tell you — the kids are not all right. Elementary school children are acting up more, school personnel say, with behaviors ranging from disruptive to violent, and teachers, parents and legislators are trying to figure out how to handle it. Read the full…