House Education Debates Limiting Funding For Low-Earning Degrees

A bill being considered by the House of Delegates would end state funding for degrees with low-earning potential for graduates. 

Under a provision of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, colleges will lose access to federal student loans if graduates do not earn more than people with only a high school diploma.

House Bill 4587 aims to bring West Virginia’s state funding of post-secondary education in line with those new federal standards.

The bill’s sponsor Del. Adam Burkhammer, R-Lewis, told the House Education Committee Monday that tax dollars should be spent to set up the next generation and the state’s workforce.

“I think this is another prudent step in ensuring that when we’re making those investments as a government, that it has return on investment for those students.

Matt Turner, vice chancellor of the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission, told the committee that the state’s existing higher education outcomes-based funding model is already designed to reward institutions for placing graduates in high demand fields in West Virginia.

Several delegates in the committee questioned the bill’s intention for rewarding earnings over the state’s needs. Delegates like Rolland Jennings, R-Preston, questioned how the graduates’ earnings were calculated.

“I don’t know where you come up with this salary at $22,000. If they’re a teacher, they would start at $41,000,” he said. 

Jennings also questioned why a history degree from Fairmont State University would be considered low-earning when the same degree from other state universities was not. That was far from the only question that seemed to perplex several committee members, including how graduate degrees would be considered for the state’s calculus.

The committee will need to take up the bill a second day before it advances to the full House of Delegates.