WV: "Fewer students overall, but the ones who remain need more help, more resources"
CHARLESTON – With student enrollment expected to continue trending downward while the estimate cost of educating rural students and those with special needs expected to rise, education officials in West Virginia walked lawmakers through a draft proposal to reform the formula before the courts mandate changes.
The Joint Standing Committee on Education met Monday afternoon on the first day of two-day legislative interim meetings at the State Capitol Building.
Committee members heard from State Superintendent of Schools Michele Blatt and Uriah Cummings, school finance operations officer for the Department of Education, about the department’s draft legislation to up the state’s Public School Support program, also known as the seven-step school aid formula which directs state general revenue funds to West Virginia’s 55-county public school system. . . .
Cummings said the estimated price tag for implementing the draft school aid funding formula bill would be approximately $410 million annually on top of what is currently spent by the state, from roughly $1.4 billion to $1.8 billion.
“Really, it’s not about just asking for more money in terms of what needs exist across the state of West Virginia,” Cummings said. “It’s being able to look at the current model that we have and saying, is this model sufficient in terms of what it takes to educate a child in today’s day and age?”
“The price tag was not surprising to me,” said Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Amy Grady, R-Mason, following Monday’s meeting. “I actually was expecting a little higher, so the $402 million was a little lower than I expected. We knew this was something that they put together as ... the things they would really like to improve.” . . .
According to numbers released by the Department of Education, the fall headcount enrollment number for the current school year was 226,687 students, a 3.5% drop in enrollment from 234,957 students in the 2025-26 school year – a decline of 8,270 students. . . .
Parts of the proposal could be implemented piecemeal or phased in.
For example, the cost for the special education portion of the proposed bill is roughly $190 million. Special education enrollment is projected to increase, from 43,000 in 2015 to 48,436 students in 2027, raising the proportion of students with disabilities from 15.3% to 21.4% – nearly a 40% relative increase.
“We’ll always point to special education as the number one priority,” Cummings said. “We are mandated to be able to provide these services from the federal level in terms of supporting a child’s IEP (individualized education plan). So, we can’t cut costs, nor do we want to cut costs as it pertains to supporting special education students.”
Due to the continued decrease in public school students, county school systems have had to make hard choices, including cutting teachers and staff, slashing spending and closing and consolidating schools, with nearly 140 public schools closed since 2011 according to the West Virginia Center for Budget and Policy.
“I’m not going to pretend to be any kind of expert on the funding formula because I’m far from it,” said Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha. “All I know is we see what the results are from years and years of not addressing it. And we see wider disparities between counties that are losing population and those that aren’t.”
School funding is likely to be top of mind for lawmakers in January. During an Oct. 28 news conference, Gov. Patrick Morrisey acknowledged as much, saying that he expects school aid and education issues to “dominate” the next legislative session.
The current proposal would, among other things, weigh special needs students more heavily when calculating how much money districts get as a way to compensate for the additional costs it takes to educate them. According to the Board of Education, federal funding only covers 12% to 17% of the costs of counties’ special education needs.
The Board is also pushing for changes in how enrollment is funded as a way to help shield districts from sudden headcount drops. The current idea would allow districts to use either prior year’s numbers or a three-year average, whichever is higher.
West Virginia Department of Education School Finance Operations Officer Uriah Cummings (right) listens during a Joint Standing Committee meeting on Education on a public school funding proposal in the House of Delegates chamber of the West Virginia State Capitol in Charleston, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026.
That is the crux of the problem with how West Virginia funds its schools, according to Uriah Cummings, a school financial operations officer at the West Virginia Department of Education. There are fewer students overall, but the ones who remain need more help and more resources. Addressing that disparity is one of the main goals of a new funding proposal the Department detailed during a meeting of the Legislature's Joint Committee on Education on Monday.
“It’s not about just asking for more money, in terms of what needs exist across the state of West Virginia,” Cummings said during his presentation to the Committee. “It’s being able to look at the current model that we have and saying, 'Is this model sufficient in terms of what it takes to educate a child in today’s day and age?’”
The answer to that question comes with a price, though — about $410 million, according to the Department.
Fumbling with the funding
There is broad recognition that the state needs to change how it funds its 55 school districts. The current system is based heavily on headcount, so as the number of pupils drops, districts receive less money, leading to layoffs and school closures. It also does not account for whether students are low-income or have other special education or English language learning needs, despite those students needing more resources. . . .
The current proposal would, among other things, weigh special needs students more heavily when calculating how much money districts get as a way to compensate for the additional costs it takes to educate them. According to the Board of Education, federal funding only covers 12% to 17% of the costs of counties’ special education needs.
The Board is also pushing for changes in how enrollment is funded as a way to help shield districts from sudden headcount drops. The current idea would allow districts to use either prior year’s numbers or a three-year average, whichever is higher.
More funding, fewer students
Monday’s meeting comes as school districts across the state raise alarm bells over falling enrollment.
For the 2026–27 school year, 226,687 students are enrolled in public schools across the state, according to the Department of Education, a 3.5% drop from last year. West Virginia has lost more than 46,000 students over the last decade.
Comments