The WVCBP’s executive director, Kelly Allen, issued the following statement in response to Governor Patrick Morrisey’s February 12, 2025 State of the State address:
“We applaud Governor Morrisey’s call to put our people’s interests over special interests, as well as the imperative he shared to prioritize the education and health of our population. But achieving those aims requires more than just words- they must be prioritized in his budget.
While during his speech, Morrisey called for increasing teacher pay and growing the Hope Scholarship, only one made it into his recommended budget. In it, funding for the Hope Scholarship is doubled compared with FY 2025, while funding for teacher and public employee pay raises is not included at all.
We urge our state lawmakers to work together to address the needs of the vast majority of children of our state who are served through the public school system before increasing spending on an unproven, unaccountable program pushed by corporate special interests.
After years of flat budgets and austerity, prioritizing the health and education of our children and families means securing the revenue needed to invest in the programs that serve them, rather than doubling down on the failed promises of deep tax cuts that undermine our shared goals of making our economy work for the families already here and the people and businesses we want to draw here.”
