MORGANTOWN – The Senate School Choice Committee received a review of the Hope Scholarship program on Wednesday, and a little look at what’s ahead for next school year.
Amy Willard, assistant treasurer of Savings Programs, with the state treasurer’s office, oversees Hope and reviewed the 2022-23 annual report on the program. This was the first such report, she said, and while it’s not statutorily required the treasurer chose to produce one.
For the 2022-23 school year, she said, 2,333 scholarships were awarded; 512 applicants were deemed ineligible; and 1,290 declined awards – many because court action shut down the program from July-October 2022 and families didn’t want to disrupt their kids’ schooling. (By comparison, committee chair Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, said, there are 245,047 students in public schools.)
The full year Hope award was $4,298.60. Total funds transferred to students was $9,188,026.43; and $7,771,761.39 was spent, leaving $1,416,265.04 unspent to carry over to this school year.
The top three Hope recipient counties were Kanawha, with 337; Berkeley with 208; and Monongalia, with 132. Preston has 43 recipients and Marion had 45. Three counties had no recipients: McDowell, Pendleton and Doddridge.
Out of the 2,333 recipients, the vast majority – 1,717 – attended nonpublic schools. Willard said some families in border counties send their children to out-of-state nonpublic schools. In terms of dollars, $5,767,261.46 stayed in state; $117,698.88 went to Maryland; $90,555 to Ohio; $55,881.80 to Virginia; $42,436.73 to Pennsylvania; $5,280 to Kentucky.
For the current year, she said. Hope received 7,076 applications. Of those, 5,675 were awarded; 662 were ineligible; 631 declined; 22 are on hold.
For the coming year, they received more than 1,000 applications came in after the May 15 deadline. “That’s not very efficient for my staff.” So, the board in December decided to create a year-round application timetable with pro-rated scholarship amounts funded quarterly.
For the 2024-25 school year, for which they’ve already received 2,592 renewal applications, awards will be granted on this timetable: March 1-June 15: 100% annual award amount; June 16-Sept. 15: 75% award amount; Sept. 16-Nov. 30: 50%; Dec. 1-Feb. 28: 25%.
Any applications submitted after Feb. 28 will be eligible for funding for the 2025-26 school year.
Sen. Mike Woelfel, D-Cabell, asked Willard some questions about the money going out of state and mentioned he has a bill, SB 327, to prohibit Hope money from going out of state. He asked Rucker if she could put it on a future agenda, but she said the bill was referred to Finance so she can’t. So Woelfel said he’ll talk to the Finance chair about it.
Email: dbeard@dominionpost.com
