By Josephine Johnson, Mountain State Spotlight
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West Virginia voters in four counties approved local taxes to help fund their schools, according to unofficial election results. Three counties voted down similar initiatives amid conversations about state-level school funding.
Voters in Jackson, Kanawha, Marshall and Mason counties approved levies to hire support staff and make improvements to their public schools. Hardy and Summers counties both voted against public school levies for the second time this year.
A levy adds an additional property tax to fund public schools in that county. Fourteen counties have asked voters to either start or continue levies to fund their schools in this year’s primary and general elections.
In the May primary, West Virginia voters passed or renewed school levies in Wetzel, Tyler, Monongalia, Morgan, Berkeley, Wirt and Gilmer counties. Levies did not pass in Braxton, Hardy and Summers counties.
On Tuesday voters approved funds for a variety of needs, from new and repaired vehicles and facilities to new textbooks, security and support staff.
Wirt County asked to borrow money through a bond for renovations to a high school and construction of a bus garage, but voters shot it down.
Nearly a quarter of Summers County residents live in poverty. They haven’t passed a levy in almost 50 years and don’t receive any additional money from the state’s funding formula. Their schools were surviving on federal COVID-19 relief money until that ran out.
In Hardy County, the poverty rate is 14%.
West Virginia does not provide increased funding to counties with higher poverty rates, unlike the 27 states that do, including Virginia.
The Summers County Middle School closed in 2020.
This levy would have provided the county with about $4.5 million over four years for hiring, renovations and safety improvements and a salary for a resource officer at their high school. But it would have added an additional 5 to 20 cents per $100 worth of property tax.
Many other rural counties are in a similar situation.
Public schools across West Virginia have faced financial crises as student enrollment keeps dropping.
Early this year, lawmakers hired researchers to figure out how to save suffering public schools. Those experts recommended more state funding to public schools and less spent on the Hope Scholarship. They wanted to increase funds for children needing special education and living in poverty, as they cost more to educate than the average child.
The West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy called for the formula to be updated in 2025.
Del. Joe Ellington, R-Mercer, offered a bill to increase funding. Lawmakers argued until time ran out and the session ended with nothing changed. Voters just reelected Ellington to the House.
Gov. Patrick Morrisey said school funding will be a major player in next year’s legislative session.
In September, a sixth grader in Lincoln County filed a petition with the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, arguing that the state’s public school funding system violates the Constitution.
State officials asked the court to postpone the lawsuit until after the 2027 session ends, as legislators are “already engaged in discussions.”
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