House Votes To Send $62 Million More To Hope Scholarship

The West Virginia House of Delegates has voted to allocate another $62.2 million to the state’s Hope Scholarship — covering just a fraction of the $315 million cost that state officials expect from the program next school year.

The Hope Scholarship was authorized by the West Virginia Legislature in 2021 and began awarding funds in 2023. It subsidizes certain educational and extracurricular expenses for youth outside the state’s public school system, like private school tuition or individual enrichment opportunities.

But the program has long faced opposition from residents and lawmakers who worry it siphons too much money away from public classrooms. The state allots its public schools certain funding per student, but the program reallocates those dollars toward individual expenses for families that forgo public education.

Delegates voted Thursday to pass a dual pair of bills sending more money to the program: House Bill 3356 and House Bill 3357. Both were presented to the West Virginia Legislature by House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, on behalf of Gov. Patrick Morrisey as part of his state budget plan.

House Bill 3356 would send $28.4 million from unappropriated general revenue funds to the program, and passed with 75 votes in favor and 21 votes opposed, with four members absent or not voting. House Bill 3357 would grant $33.8 million from the state’s surplus lottery fund to the program, and passed by a vote of 76 to 21, with three members absent or not voting.

During the 2024 to 2025 school year, the Hope Scholarship provided up to roughly $4,900 per student, with that price point expected to surpass $5,200 next school year, according to the scholarship website.

Lawmakers have made it easier for youth to enlist in the program since its inception, causing demand for the scholarships to balloon. The program cost West Virginia $46 million in 2024, and $110 million in 2025. With more participants, legislators say this year’s cost could triple in 2026.

Del. Dana Ferrell, R-Kanawha, took to the House floor Thursday to call that a problem.

“I think parental choice is highly important,” he said. But “balancing the budget” for things like emergency medical services and road infrastructure is “very, very important.”

Proponents of the bill argue it fulfills an obligation to West Virginia families that the state legislature took on when it first authorized the program. Many also say it helps families with specialized needs access individualized learning resources for their kids, without the constraints that come with paying out of pocket.

“These are people,” said Del. Adam Burkhammer, R-Lewis, on the House floor. “It’s not just a supplemental appropriation. It’s going directly into your communities: into schools in your communities, into families in your communities, directly to West Virginians.”

But others contend that rising program costs require proactive management, especially as the state faces other funding needs. Del. Elliott Pritt, R-Fayette, said that is something he holds true from both his work at the State Capitol and his experience teaching in public school classrooms.

“What other obligations is that ballooning line item going to infringe upon?” Pritt said to West Virginia Public Broadcasting after the floor session Thursday. “When it comes to PEIA for our state employees, [or] raises for our Department of Corrections employees… that takes money from other obligations we previously made.”

The bills garnered significant bipartisan debate Thursday, meeting disapproval among all of the chamber’s Democratic lawmakers and a minority of its Republicans.

Despite the concern, a majority of lawmakers voted to pass both bills, and to make them effective after June 30 — the end of the state government’s current fiscal year. Before taking effect, the bills will still need to receive approval from the West Virginia Senate and the governor.

In the meantime, some legislators like Del. Bill Anderson, R-Wood, hope the program’s growing price tag serves as a wake-up call that the state needs to find a way to mitigate additional costs in the future.

“I will acknowledge that this appropriation needs to be passed today to live up to our commitment when the body created the Hope Scholarship,” he said during floor discussion.

But Anderson also provided his fellow delegates a “cautionary note.”

“In the coming years, this legislature is going to have to seriously consider how much of an impact this is going to make on our budget relative to all of the other things in our state that we have to fund,” he said.

**Editor’s note: Audio included in this article comes from a version of the story that was televised on The Legislature Today, West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s legislative recap program, on April 10. Watch at this link.