Gov. Patrick Morrisey said state officials could consider increased financial support for public schools but emphasized that would require making choices elsewhere.
“Anytime folks want to put new money that’s not accounted for, you’ve got to take it away from somewhere else. We’re not spending more in aggregate, right? That part, I’m clear about,” Morrisey said during a briefing today in response to a MetroNews question.
In December, the state school board approved consolidations and closures of more than a dozen schools across six counties. Today, the state board agreed to two more closures in Wayne County. The state also experienced a wave of school consolidations last year.
The state Senate Education Committee has been rolling out several bills this week intended to address financial support.
One would increase the professional educator and service personnel ratios by 3 positions per 1,000 students. The estimated cost for the salaries, fixed costs, current expense/substitute costs, retirement and PEIA for the additional is expected to be $86,634,763.
Another would establish a three-tier special education net enrollment adjustment factor for county boards of education. During this legislative session, officials have described significant increased costs for educating students who sometimes need one-on-one learning or additional nursing support. The anticipated cost is $45.9 million.
Another bill expected to be taken up by Senate Education this week would provide extra state aid for students enrolled in extremely remote schools. It also prohibits a county board from closing an extremely remote school. The estimated cost is $11.7 million.
It’s not clear that all of those would advance or pass. As of now, it seems more likely that lawmakers would choose one for focus.
When asked about his initial reaction, the governor outlined several financial priorities his own administration has already laid out.
One is a 5% personal income tax that his administration has budgeted to reflect. That represents an estimated $125 million.
The governor has repeatedly described wanting to work with the Legislature to get to a 10% tax cut. That is not represented in the governor’s current budget proposal, but it would be another $125 million.
Morrisey described a priority for new infrastructure spending of more than $100 million.
And the governor has called for a significant increase in funding for the Hope Scholarship for children whose families are choosing an educational option outside the public school system. That’s an anticipated cost of $230 million and an increased base of $127.3 million in the coming fiscal year.
Morrisey’s budget proposal did not outline additional financial support for public schools.
“So when people are proposing new spending, I would argue we have to find offsets and changes to make that happen just the same way I mentioned on the tax cuts,” the governor said today.
“We do have a lot of ideas, and we’ve got to have conversations to vet those more fully, but any bill that costs money has to get offset somehow. Right? That’s so that’s the spirit that I look at it.”
In a briefing about a range of education issues today, Morrisey repeatedly said overall K–12 spending is already high by national standards and suggested the core problem is structure and management, not lack of dollars.
“I would argue the problem isn’t spending. It’s how our system is structured and managed,” he said, “and I think there’s a better way that we can have more accountability for our kids and make sure our kids are benefiting from the many dollars that are spent.”
A State Department of Education analysis distributed earlier this year indicates the cost of serving special education students exceeded the revenue available to fund those services by $224 million. Total expenditures related to special education totaled more than $584 million while available revenue to fund those needs equaled only $360 million.
Morrisey made reference to that figure during his press conference today and blamed the state school board for not looping in his administration earlier. “And we’d like to be brought in sooner,” he said.
Senate Education Chairwoman Amy Nichole Grady, R-Mason, has said she understands that the financial choices will be challenging. But Grady said funding for strained local school systems needs to be a priority.
The senator said financial support for special education is emerging as a priority.
“What we need to do first is take care of the biggest issue, and every single superintendent in every county has said their biggest issue is their special education costs,” Grady said on MetroNews Talkline.
“And so that’s kind of where I’ve gone with it in my head as education chair is looking at if that’s what they say their biggest need is then let’s start there.”
She added, “It’s a step in the right direction, and it does help. I want to make sure that whatever we do is helpful, but also something that we can get through the Legislature. So a balance there is what’s most important.”
Senator Mike Oliverio, R-Monongalia, spoke about education funding on “Talk of the Town” on WAJR Radio. He, too, said local school systems have spoken up more urgently about the costs of special education.
“Over time, we have fewer students in part based on birth rate dropping in West Virginia. We have more alternatives for students, so we have students popping out into all kinds of homeschool and micro-schools and things like that. We have students in private school, parochial school. And so because of a lot of factors public school numbers are dropping.
“The one group of students that appear to be staying are those students with disabilities. So while the number of students with disabilities has increased some, what really has increased is the percentage of students with disabilities among the public school numbers of students,” Oliverio said.
He concluded, “We’re just looking for a way that we can create some dollars to help meet these students needs and prepare them for life after school.”