Lawmakers Take Action To Reform Schools Funding, Recognize Need For System Overhaul

The Senate Education Committee spent most of its time this week discussing bills to update state financing of schools.

Bills like Senate Bill 801 would increase teacher staffing in all schools, while Senate Bill 437 would provide more funding for each special education student in a school.

At Thursday’s meeting Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, expressed his support for the bills, but also urged his colleagues to look towards a complete overhaul of how the state funds schools.

“No one of these bills is going to fix public ed in the sense that we start seeing it funded appropriately to the educational needs of West Virginia until there’s a comprehensive fix,” he said. “These bills that we’re sending over right now into the Finance Committee that have these different price tags, we’re seeing some quality bills that are thought-provoking on how we should be building a comprehensive formula.”

Declining school enrollment, increased costs such as PEIA and the rise of school choice options have put most of West Virginia’s public school districts in a difficult financial position and has led to the recent rash of school closures and consolidations.