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In a statement released Tuesday state Treasurer Larry Pack, who serves as chairman of the Hope Scholarship Board, said his office “will aggressively oppose any attempt to reverse the universal expansion approved by the legislature and signed by the governor.”
Pack and Michele Blatt, state superintendent of schools, are the only two named defendants in the suit in their official capacities, avoiding state law that requires a government agency be notified at least 30 days prior to action against a governmental agency.
“It is unfortunate that the Hope Scholarship is still being used as a political football, distracting from the urgent issues facing our public schools,” Pack said. “As chairman of the Hope Scholarship Board, I am committed to ensuring every student in the program receives the unique educational opportunities they deserve.”
The lawsuit was filed Friday in Kanawha County Circuit Court by 10 parents of 15 students in Mingo County Public Schools. It alleges the expansion is inconsistent with the state Constitution’s guarantee of a thorough and efficient system of free schools and could lead to the closure of their local elementary school.
“Funds disbursed into individual education savings accounts and spent cannot practicably be recovered,” the filed complaint reads. “During the pendency of this action, county school systems will make binding decisions, including the proposed closure of Dingess Elementary School, based on funding conditions to which the program is alleged to contribute. A school that closes does not reopen on remand.”
Mingo County Schools have been under state control since a state of emergency was declared by the West Virginia Board of Education last year.
The lawsuit claims not to want the dissolution of the Hope Scholarship program but does ask the court to stop “further disbursement of Hope Scholarship funds to new, first-time applicants who became eligible only by operation of the 2026-2027 universal eligibility expansion.”
While acknowledging they are “right to demand solutions for public education,” Pack called the anger of the parents “misguided.”
“We encourage the legislature to act quickly and confront the urgent challenges in our public schools. Our schools are demanding help, and the time for action is long overdue. We must cut burdensome regulations so teachers can focus on teaching,” Pack said. “But let’s be clear: improving public schools does not require sacrificing educational freedom. We can—and must—strengthen public education and uphold school choice at the same time. We are ready to partner with policymakers to deliver real change. The future of our students depends on it. Let’s get to work.”
All West Virginia children from kindergarten through grade twelve are now eligible to apply for the Hope Scholarship. Previously, the state’s school voucher program required students to be enrolled in public school for at least 45 days to be approved. The Hope Scholarship program provides financial assistance to qualifying families to be used for tuition, homeschool curriculum and other approved educational expenses.
However, the lawsuit also alleges that the parents in Mingo County have less opportunity to use Hope Scholarship funds if they chose to, as no participating private schools “sits within a reasonable commute of their homes. They bear the fiscal consequences of the program without practical access to the choice the program was enacted to provide.”
This is not the first time the Hope Scholarship has been challenged in court. Almost as soon as the law establishing the school voucher program passed the state legislature in 2021, State v. Beaver resulted in a court order that delayed its implementation by almost a year before being dismissed by the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.
At the time, the Hope Scholarship’s disbursements were $4,300 to an estimated 3,000 students for a total cost of close to $13 million. After the universal expansion Pack’s office has estimated the program’s cost is currently $155 million. With incremental increases to individual awards in the ensuing four years, disbursements are now $5,435.62 per student and close to 27,000 students had already applied by June.
The suit argues that such a substantial change, paired with inaction by the legislature to address school funding issues, is a condition explicitly allowed for in the court’s Beaver decision.