A lingering and controversial bill originally meant to reform aspects of the Hope Scholarship for children being educated outside the public school system wound up being whittled to bare bones.
The House Finance Committee, after having had the bill on its agenda morning and afternoon over about a week, finally took it up on Thursday morning.
When a new version was unveiled, the bill had been changed to only focus on changing the scholarship cash flow from two times a year to quarterly. The Finance Committee passed the bill unanimously, agreeing that’s a useful change, but with some questions about what gives.
COMMENTARY by TJ MEADOWS: Legislators appear to have a deal on Hope Scholarship
“I just want to make sure — this is the originating bill that I have in front of me?” asked Delegate Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, holding up a single piece of green paper.
“Very short. But am I accurate in saying that outside of the quarterly payments, there’s no other cost containment language in here?”
It’s the whole bill, the committee’s counsel told him.
Hornbuckle absorbed that. “It’s the whole bill.”
A little more than a week ago, the Finance Committee rolled out a bill aimed at more broadly refining the Hope Scholarship.
The bill would have trimmed Hope Scholarship expenses by capping the amount to families and refining allowable expenses to categories of tuition, curriculum and technology. That bill also would have required standardized testing for Hope Scholarship recipients intended to compare academic achievement with public schools students.
As the bill kept bouncing from agenda to agenda with no action, the governor, the state treasurer and homeschool families expressed displeasure. Now, only the quarterly funding proposal remains.
After the meeting, state Treasurer Larry Pack, a Republican, praised the reconsideration of earlier provisions.
“We understand the need to thoroughly examine all government initiatives and look forward to having future conversations with the leadership of both Houses on this program,” Pack said.
“The Hope Scholarship has had a tremendous impact on thousands of students in West Virginia. We want to ensure the longevity of the program for years to come.”
Democrats like Hornbuckle tried to persuade the finance committee to return some of the earlier provisions to the bill, but their amendments were ruled not germane to the particular section of state code being affected. Both Democrats on the committee, Hornbuckle and John Williams of Morgantown, voted for the bill to advance.
House Health Chairman Evan Worrell, in a hallway interview, said the time spent considering how to best construct the bill had paid off.
“The important piece is that we do need to change the quarterly payments for the state budget. I think that’s an appropriate step to make sure we take care of that from a fiscal standpoint. I support the version of the bill,” said Worrell, R-Cabell.
“I also say I support it because it continues to allow parents to make the best educational choices for their children. The other originating bill put in a lot of other additional guardrails — because the Hope Scholarship does have guardrails today. You can’t just go out and guy whatever you want.”
Homeschool families over a week’s time had gathered in the committee room on a daily basis, including Thursday morning.
Worrell, a member of the committee had found the process as challenging as anyone.
“That was frustrating, but I think what it did is it opened the door to conversations and a lot of conversations with other colleagues, with other stakeholders — and this is what happened because of that, and ultimately we came away with this bill for quarterly payments,” Worrell said.
“But it’s extremely important to talk about these things, to talk about them openly and publicly and understand what is best for our West Virginia citizens, and this is one of those examples.”