MORGANTOWN – The Senate Finance Committee gave the expected OK to the Hope Scholarship bill Thursday afternoon and sent it to the Senate floor.
Along the way, the majority rejected four amendments offered by Democrats, so the bill remains as it came over from the House of Delegates at this point.
The Hope Scholarship bill is HB 2013.
Among the rejected amendments, Sen. Stephen Baldwin, D-Greenbrier, proposed to expand the Hope Scholarship Board that will oversee the program from nine members to 11. As the bill stands, the board would consist of the state treasurer, the state auditor, or a designee, the attorney general or a designee, the superintendent of schools or a designee, the chancellor of higher education or a designee, the director of the Herbert Henderson Office of Minority Affairs or a designee and three gubernatorial appointees who are parents of Hope Scholarship students or plan to apply before the bill takes effect.
Baldwin proposed to add local school representation via one county superintendent and one county school board member. That failed in a voice vote.
Sen. Bill Ihlenfeld, D-Ohio, proposed to remove the section, added via amendment on the House floor, expanding the eligibility of the program in 2026 to every student in private school or home school.
As discussed previously and on Thursday, the expanded eligibility would swell the cost of the program from $23.7 million to $126.6 million (the additional students costing about $102.3 million).
Ihlenfeld said he wanted to urge some caution and fiscal responsibility. His amendment also fell in a voice vote.
Amy Willard, Department of Education school operations officer, told the senators that students who use Hope money to transfer out of public schools into private or home schools will take about $4,600 in state aid money with them.
Local funds and federal funds – apart from some nutrition money not needed because the kids won’t be getting fed at school – will stay with the county, she said. It’s been said that totals about $8,000.
Kelly Allen, executive director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, told the senators that the center opposes the bill because it will be more expansive and more expensive than any of the other six state Education Savings Account programs.
Sen. Rollan Roberts, R-Raleigh, reminded his colleagues that he is a pastor and certified teacher and was involved in private Christian education for 45 years. He was serving on a national Christian school board in 2011 when Arizona introduced ESAs. “I think the Hope Scholarship is a great bill that is going to help a lot of children,” he said.
The bill passed in a divided voice vote.
The Hope Scholarship program is a state-funded education savings accounts. It will begin as a way to allow public school students to transfer to a private school or be home schooled. The estimated initial enrollment is 5,118. The estimated per-pupil scholarship of $4,600 (a flexible figure based on average state aid per pupil) could be used for a variety of specified educational expenses.
Beginning in 2026, all students in private and home schools would be eligible for the scholarship if total program participation is less than 5% of statewide student enrollment based on 2023-2024 numbers. That expands the total estimated enrollment to 27,368 students, according to a Department of Education fiscal note.
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