Reforming West Virginia’s school aid funding formula has been discussed for years, but this session, West Virginia Board of Education President Paul Hardesty is urging lawmakers to take action to level the playing field and address declining enrollment and school consolidations.
“We have to tweak this formula to where it works for all of West Virginia, not just a select few. Many years ago, the legislature tweaked the school aid formula to what they call the 1400 model. The 1400 model says if you have less than 1400 students, you’re going to get additional dollars, so the floor for your funding is going to be based on 1400,” Hardesty said.
The school aid formula determines how much funding each county receives based on student enrollment.
“You can’t keep giving counties like Pendleton and Pocahontas and others, 4 and 500 extra students of pay while the ones that are between 1,400 and 2,000, that’s where the sweet spot seems to be. Those are the ones that are hurting,” Hardesty said.
He said legislative changes are needed to make the funding system fair and equitable.
“It’s asinine to keep funding people at 1,400 level when they have 8,900 kids. There’s just no rhyme or reason we ought to keep doing that,” he said.
On Tuesday, lawmakers heard several proposals aimed at fixing the school aid formula, including recommendations from the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research institute.
Researchers said the current formula fails to adequately address the needs of low-income and disabled students, noting districts require additional resources to provide equal opportunities.
“I think the weights are per student, regardless of how many students you have, the implications for districts are based on how many students are low income. What you’re going to find is weights have a big impact in West Virginia because so many districts have so many low income students or so many students with disabilities,” a RAND spokesperson said.
Researchers also cautioned lawmakers about potential issues tied to the HOPE Scholarship program. They warned that if vouchers are expanded to everyone, the program could cost the state $105 million annually, potentially driving up private school tuition and benefiting families already able to afford private education.
“Examples from other states show that sudden and broad growth can increase private school tuition costs and this would work against the goal of increasing affordability in the private sector and getting as much value out of the scholarships for families,” a RAND spokesperson said.