West Virginia joins states around the country in moving towards free higher education, with SB 284, the free community college bill supported by Governor Justice and Senate President Carmichael. The "WV Invest Grant" program would provide a grant offsetting tuition for eligible students who enroll in one of the state's two year colleges. The grant…
Education
Higher education in West Virginia has been hit hard by the state’s recent budget problems. Public colleges and universities across the state have seen multiple years of budget cuts, at a time when the state sorely needs to invest in its workforce. In response, tuitions have sharply increased to compensate for the budget cuts, making…
This week the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released a report on the state of K-12 funding since the Great Recession. The main takeaway from the report was that most states are providing less support per student for K-12 now than before the recession, and that some states are still cutting K-12 funding, eight…
For Immediate Release Contact: Sean O'Leary or Linda Frame, 304-720-8682, lframe@wvpolicy.org Shortchanging Public Universities and Colleges Reduces Access to Higher Education, Hurts Economy – Even as most states have begun to restore funding for higher education that was cut during the recession, West Virginia has continued to cut funding for public universities and colleges, according…
A new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows that West Virginia is not alone in making cuts to higher education in recent years, but unlike West Virginia, most states are starting to reverse those cuts, as the effects of the recession fade away. The report shows that after adjusting for inflation,…
On September 5, 2013, Executive Director Ted Boettner presented to the WV Early Childhood Planning Taskforce on the importance of quality early childhood care and education. View his presentation here.
As we've said before, one of West Virginia's biggest challenges to creating stronger economic growth and better paying jobs is increasing the number of workers with a college degree. Unfortunately, as Chris pointed out here and here, the state and the federal government are making it increasingly more difficult to attend college by raising the…
by Chris Nyden On Tuesday, the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission (HEPC) approved an increase in average tuition for West Virginia public college students from $5,687 to $6,067. These increases were partly a result of a $30 million budget cut to higher education in the FY 2014 budget. This is just the second time…
by Christopher Nyden, Research Associate Barring another last-minute agreement, the interest rates on subsidized Stafford student loans are set to double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent on July 1. These loans are offered to students who depend on them to attend college. Doubling rates will significantly increase the debt burden for West Virginia college…
Central Appalachian Broadband Policy Recommendations The Central Appalachia Regional Network (CARN) advocates for policies that support the availability of affordable high-quality broadband services for the citizens of the Central Appalachia region. These include both policies that will support broadband deployment as well as policies to increase public awareness of the need for broadband and digital…