MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — State education officials say there are a number of factors contributing to the continual loss of students in public schools in West Virginia.
Official numbers released by the state Department of Education this week show a 2.2 percent decrease in the past year.
Current enrollment is at 234,957 students for this year compared to more than 250,000 in the 2021-22 school year, a 6.5 percent drop over the last four years.
State Department of Education Assistant Superintendent Jeff Kelley said one of the factors is the economy.
“We’ve struggled in the southern coal fields academically since the decline of coal,” Kelley said on MetroNews “Talkline.” “They were partners—the business side was able to support the school system, and the school system was able to produce people that could work in those mines.”
Monongalia County Schools lost about 100 students from last year and Superintendent Eddie Campbell said that’s been a consistent annual loss since the pandemic.
Over that four-year period, Campbell said the county has lost several key businesses.
“Mylan Pharmaceuticals closed their facility and we lost enrollment from families that had to move out of the area because of that, we had the big layoff and we lost families due to that as well,” Campbell said.
There’s also been the startup of the first brick and mortar charter school in the state, The West Virginia Academy that now has an enrollment of about 275 students. The county is also home to a second charter school, the Wisdom Academy, that opened its doors this fall.
Campbell acknowledged the loss to charter and home schooling options has likely reached its total but the Hope Scholarship continues to grow.
“They can get money to pay for private schools or parochial schools; it helps them with the cost of homeschooling, and I think if more dollars are available, more people are going to take advantage of that,” Campbell said.
School districts in Preston, Barbour, and Randolph counties are among those who have suggested possible changes to the State School Aid Funding Formula could be needed. Kelley said the result could be the discovery that education is underfunded in the state.
“We don’t have a money tree sitting outside that we can go shake and just throw money at things,” Kelley said. “So, if they’re going to start moving money around, the question is going to be where is the money going to come from because it is going to have a ripple effect.”
Marketing and public relations should be a priority, according to Kelley. Not enough is done to inform the public about the positive impact schools are having on communities and families. Education leaders need to begin to send those signals to the public in an effort to improve their image.
“There are great things going on in our schools all across our state, and I’m not sure we’re doing an optimal job of selling our product, so we have to do a better job on that front too,” Kelley said.