West Virginia Public Broadcasting – Just one month after his inauguration, the Trump administration has cut thousands of workers across the federal government. The Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, headed by Elon Musk, is looking to slash at least $1 trillion in federal spending across dozens of departments.
Kelly Allen, executive director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, spoke with Chris Schulz about what cuts to the Department of Education would mean for local schools.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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Schulz: Tell me a little bit about the federal money that comes into the state.
Allen: Schools in West Virginia, I believe like schools all over the country, are generally funded by government at three levels. So the bulk of it, about 80% I believe, comes from state and local government funding. So at the local level, property taxes are a major source of funding for education. And then at the state level, there’s something called the state school aid funding formula that kind of balances out and provides a significant chunk of state level funding for public education.
State spending on public ed is a really big chunk of the overall state general revenue budget, I think it’s about $1.8 billion. And then the other 20% or so comes from federal funding. And federal funding that is enacted by Congress and routed through the US Department of Education plays three major roles that we can talk about a little bit more, but it’s more targeted to specific programs or specific higher need populations.
We actually put an analysis out earlier this week highlighting how West Virginia is more reliant than most states on federal funding. So that’s going to encompass a lot of areas, not just education. But if you look at not just the state’s general revenue budget – which is what the legislature will be enacting in a couple of months – but if you look at that total budget that encompasses everything, we get just over 50% of our budget from federal funds, and the national average for states is about a third. So because of a lot of factors, we’re more reliant than most states on federal funding, which is why this conversation is really important.
For K-12 education, this is not an exhaustive list, but I think the three largest sources of K-12 funding that come in to our schools, again enacted through Congress, but routed through the U.S. Department of Education into our states, are the Every Student Succeeds Act, ESSA funding, which is for Title I and Title II. Title I goes specifically to low income students, low income districts. There’s also IDEA funds, which are the Individuals with Disabilities and Education Act, so specifically for students with special needs, and then the National School Lunch Program, which is also really important in West Virginia, a state that has high levels of food insecurity. And combined, those three funding sources are expected to bring in over $600 million to West Virginia in fiscal year 2025 which is the current fiscal year that we’re in. That’s a really big number. So just to put that in perspective a little bit, it’s about $2,500 per pupil in the public school system.
