Dear Editor,
West Virginia’s Hope Scholarship provides an education savings account that benefits school choice for students; why would anyone want to take that choice away? While many families in West Virginia have continually relied on public schooling as the only option they’ve ever known, a new option is now available to them through the Hope Scholarship.
But are there winners and losers?
Some public school parents believe they are the losers here, and have filed a lawsuit to end the game. The lawsuit of Beaver v. Moore was filed in January of 2022, with an injunction requesting that the bill be stopped in its tracks filed months later in April. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit claim that their children enrolled in public schools will lose out on crucial funding that they believe will be redirected to Hope Scholars via HB 2013. Their lawsuit claims that the bill is unconstitutional.
As a parent with an incoming kindergartener awarded the Hope Scholarship, I find that neither argument is accurate. The funding is specifically designed so that it follows each student to their chosen schooling option. If they choose public schooling, the funds will go to the school or county board where they will attend. If they choose, private, charter, or IIP (Individualized Instruction Program) the student receives $4,600. Three hundred of which will go to administration of the program. Across the state, funding for public school students per pupil is approximately $11,800. The funding that is not distributed to students under the Hope Scholarship stays with the county. This means when a student leaves the school, so does the expense and responsibility, but the federal and local portions of funding remain with the district.
We can’t expect the public school system to meet every child’s needs. Should a student be forced to remain in public school when their needs are not being met? How hard should it be for a parent to provide their student with an education that fits? Must families without financial means be limited while those who can afford private school or homeschooling have options?
The opportunity that public schools have here, to decrease expenses while reducing class size, should be one that all who care for the future of WV children should get behind. Instead we are being presented with antiquated arguments and emotional persuasion aimed at coercing us to believe our state can only limit opportunities, not provide them.
For the hearing to resolve the issue at hand, we must see this injunction denied. What benefit would there be if this persecution of choice is allowed to continue? Public school expenses only decrease if the Hope Scholarship continues. West Virginia parents are only empowered to CHOOSE what is best for their children. The fact of the matter is, everyone loses if this injunction is granted.
Rachael Robinson
Milton, WV
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