Tough week for the Hope Scholarship Program: House Finance considering financial changes

By Autumn Shelton, RealWV

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The House Finance Committee is considering a bill that would amend certain aspects of the Hope Scholarship Program – a statewide program that provides funding for K-12 students that can be used for homeschool curriculum and other qualifying expenses.

As discussed during Wednesday’s committee meeting, the bill, which originated in the House Finance Committee, would change the annual scholarship award to a flat $5,250 beginning in July 2026, removing the annual award amount from being linked to per pupil funding provided to public education students through the school aid formula. 

According to information found on the state’s Hope Scholarship website, the current 2025-2026 Hope Scholarship award is $5,267.38, and is projected to be $5,435.62 for the 2026-2027 school year. 

Funding provided through the Hope Scholarship Program is subject to a five percent fee paid to the West Virginia Treasurer’s office for administrative costs, which would leave a net amount provided to Hope Scholarship students of $5,000. 

In 2024-2025, the Hope Scholarship provided about $31.9 million in payments to non-public schools, $2.8 million in payments to microschools, $2.065 million to Education Service Providers, $6.5 million to purchase educational supplies using TheoPay, and $425,831 in reimbursements for families, according to the annual report. 

Some of these payments were made to nonpublic schools, virtual schools, or education service providers that are based out-of-state, as the Hope Scholarship Act does not require these services to be physically located in West Virginia. However, this proposed bill would require that a Hope Scholarship participating private school be located in West Virginia. 

According to information presented during the committee meeting, out-of-state spending for nonpublic schools and microschools for fiscal year 2025 amounted to $1,774,098.63. 

The bill would also eliminate certain qualifying expenses for those who receive the Hope Scholarship, such as tutoring services, fees for advanced placement exams, fees for exams for college or university admission, and prep courses for those exams, afterschool or summer education programs, and musical equipment. 

In addition to eliminating those qualifying expenses, the bill would place a limit on other qualifying expenses, including those for tuition and fees for a non-public online learning program, although funds could still be used for curriculum, and uber or taxi transportation fees to a participating school. However, funds may still be used for a bus provided by the school. 

The Hope Scholarship Board of Directors would receive limitations as well, such as the ability to authorize qualifying expenses other than what is already included in statute, and the bill clarifies that the board may develop a technology policy to limit the use of funding for purchases of devices to their useful life, which is usually two years. 

The bill would require that Hope Scholarship students who have chosen an individualized instructional plan (IIP) take the comprehensive statewide student growth assessment at grades 3, 5, and 11, just as public school students must take. As of the 2024-2025 Hope Scholarship report, that includes 3,263 students. The remainder of the Hope Scholarship recipients, 7,231, have enrolled in a non-public school and are already required to participate in testing. 

Also, yearly testing requirements, or a portfolio, will remain in place and must be provided to the student’s local county board of education. 

Drew McClanahan, legislative and policy officer for the West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE), was on-hand to answer questions from committee members regarding the general summative assessment. 

According to McClanahan, the WVDE provides online summative assessment proctoring for those enrolled in virtual charter schools, and would be able to provide this service to homeschool students as well. 

“If that assessment needed to be made available, we would be willing to work to make sure that we make any accommodations that we need to make,” McClanahan said, adding that he would look into how much the assessment costs and provide that information to committee members at a later date. 

Additionally, McClanahan stated that policy should determine what data is gathered from homeschool students from the summative assessment. 

Lastly, the bill would change the current biannual payout of Hope Scholarship funding to four times per year. 

State Treasurer Larry Pack, who serves as chairman of the Hope Scholarship Board of Directors, released a statement following the House Finance Committee’s discussion of their proposed bill, in which he said that he was disappointed in the House and the Senate regarding the Hope Scholarship Program.

“We are disappointed in the actions of the West Virginia State Senate and House of Delegates this week regarding the Hope Scholarship Program,” Pack stated. “Both bodies have infused uncertainty into the program as we are about to welcome nearly 25,000 new students and families to partake. These policy decisions will only produce negative effects for our Hope families, and we are urging lawmakers to reconsider. Actions within both bodies are especially troubling because we are seeing these changes less than two weeks out from universal expansion. We believe it is inappropriate, at this time, to push for such drastic deviations and welcome additional discussions down the road on the future of the program.”  

The Senate Finance Committee, on Monday, advanced their version of the budget bill, which moved Hope Scholarship funding to the “back-of-the-budget.”

In Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s introduced budget, $230 million was appropriated out of the state’s general revenue to fully fund the Hope Scholarship Program (for an estimated 42,000 eligible students) with an additional $108 million appropriated from supplementals, such as the general revenue, lottery and excess lottery surplus. However, the Senate Finance Committee’s version of the budget removed all funding for the Hope Scholarship Program out of general revenue.

Instead, $100 million in funding would be appropriated from supplementals with an additional $200 million from the general revenue surplus — which means the state must first meet all other financial obligations before the majority of Hope Scholarship funding may be distributed.

RealWV will provide updates as they become available.