Hope Scholarship set to reshape West Virginia education

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WBOY) — The Hope Scholarship offers $4,921 for families who would like their children to be educated outside of the public school system. Currently, it’s only available to students entering kindergarten, but in 2026, it will be opened to all students in West Virginia .

State Treasurer Riley Moore says that as many as 40,000 private school or homeschooled students could use the Hope Scholarship when it opens to everyone. If half of that 40,000 decide to take the $5,000 scholarship, then that is a roughly $100 million of new expense for the state government—money that some argue should go to West Virginia’s public schools.

Kelly Allen of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy has been a vocal critic of the Hope Scholarship. Allen argues that the Hope Scholarship draws funding away from public schools, only aids a small subset of West Virginians, and has questionable education outcomes.

“Voucher programs like the Hope Scholarship don’t lead to better educational outcomes for the students who participate,” Allen said. “They go to families who are already in private school or who could already afford the cost of private school, and they really have a cost on our public schools where more than 90% of West Virginia students receive their education.”

12 News also spoke to Treasurer Moore who made the case for the Hope Scholarship. Moore said the Hope Scholarship allows taxpayers to “educate their children in the manner which best fits their child’s educational needs and requirements.”

A brief written by the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy , however, raises concerns about the educational outcome of students under the Hope Scholarship. The brief says that students who have enrolled in similar programs to the Hope Scholarship in other states perform worse than students in public school. The brief criticizes that money from the Hope Scholarship can wind up in unaccredited schools as $1.7 million has so far.

To those academic concerns, Treasurer Moore said that opening education to the marketplace will improve education. Moore argues that as schools—private and public—compete with each other to attract students, the quality of education in West Virginia schools will improve as a whole. He said he trusts the parents to choose the best school for their children.

“This is a choice that these parents can make, and the idea that the schools are receiving the money—no, the families receive the money and then they make their decision and where they would like to spend that money,” Moore said.

With millions of dollars on the line as well as the future landscape of West Virginia education, the Hope Scholarship is likely to continue to be the subject of debate.

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