Welcome to the inaugural edition of Bridging the Divide, a monthly point/counterpoint column featuring the chairs of the Hardy County Republican and Democratic Executive Committees.
Each month, they’ll tackle issues that matter to our community, fostering respectful debate and proving that we can disagree without being disagreeable. Our goal is to engage, inform, and inspire thoughtful discussions in the community. In honor of the new school year, this month’s topic is school choice and public-school funding. Below, Sherri Hoff (Republican Chair) and John Rosato (Democratic Chair) offer their perspectives.
Republican Perspective: We should invest in children, not systems.
Every child has unique strengths, weaknesses, and learning styles. Some thrive in a traditional public school classroom, while others do best in private schools, homeschools, or other specialized programs. The goal of state and local government officials isn’t to defend a particular system — it’s to make sure every child has access to the education that fits them best.
That’s why Republicans have consistently supported policies like the Hope Scholarship. Critics often frame it as an attack on public schools, but it’s not. It’s simply a way to ensure that every parent can choose the education they feel is best for their child.
For too long, our state treated education funding as if the system itself were the client. Dollars went first to bureaucracy — even if that bureaucracy kept producing poor results year after year.
The Republican approach turns that upside down: the child comes first, and funding should follow them wherever their learning takes place.
The Hope Scholarship allows parents to direct a portion of their child’s state education dollars toward private tuition, homeschooling, tutoring, or other alternatives. For many students, this has been life-changing. And far from weakening public schools, competition encourages them to improve.
Democrats argue that money for the Hope Scholarship should instead be locked back into the “legacy” system, regardless of results. But pouring more money into the same structure, without demanding accountability, is how West Virginia wound up with some of the nation’s lowest educational attainment rates. We cannot keep doing the same thing and expect different results.
That doesn’t mean ignoring public schools. Just the opposite. We should work to make public schools so good, every parent wants to send their child there.
That’s why Governor Morrisey and Republicans in the state legislature passed important reforms this year to strengthen public schools. Lawmakers banned phones in classrooms, since study after study has shown that phones distract students and harm learning outcomes. Republicans also passed a law that allows educators to more easily remove students who are repeatedly disruptive and ruin the learning environment for everyone else.
Further reforms are needed, of course. Republicans have long argued that we need to support excellent teachers — in part through measures like merit-based pay, so that the best teachers could be paid more, just like high-performing employees in other fields are rewarded.
On health benefits for teachers and other public employees, Republicans acknowledge that PEIA costs are a serious concern. Governor Morrisey has already committed to convening special legislative sessions to find long-term, sustainable solutions. But solving that problem should not come at the expense of parents’ right to choose the best education for their kids.
The measure of a good education policy is not whether it protects a system — it’s whether it empowers students. Republicans believe West Virginia’s children deserve options that reflect their diversity and individuality. By letting dollars follow the child, and by working to create classroom environments where students have a real chance to learn, we can build a stronger, more resilient state for the future.
Democratic Perspective: A Stronger West Virginia Begins in our Public Schools.
As Democrats, we believe government should do the most good for the most people. When it comes to our children, that means ensuring every child has access to a strong public education.
As the saying goes: “Talent is distributed equally, but opportunity is not.” Public schools exist to bridge that gap—nurturing the potential of every child regardless of economic status. Yet under Gov. Morrissey and the Republican-led legislature, West Virginia is failing this mission. They have underfunded our schools, ignored the Public Employees Insurance Agency (PEIA) funding crisis, refused teacher pay raises, and funneled hundreds of millions into an unchecked Hope Scholarship program.
Public schools are the bedrock of our communities. They educate more than 90% of West Virginia’s children and serve as hubs of learning, connection, and stability. In many counties, they are also the largest employers, sustaining local economies. Despite their importance, West Virginia ranks last in the nation for educational attainment, with especially low high school and college completion rates. The reason is clear: we are not investing in our system. Teachers here are the lowest paid in the country and the state ranks 42nd in per-pupil spending – far behind our neighbors. It is unrealistic to expect strong results when we refuse to provide the resources. With no pay raise this year and a proposed 14% PEIA premium hike, many educators are effectively taking a pay cut, making it even harder to retain talented teachers.
The situation has only worsened as overall state education funding dropped from $2.36 billion last year to $2.018 billion this year. While some of the decline comes from enrollment losses tied to the Hope Scholarship, most of it reflects deliberate legislative choices to prioritize other spending. The result: counties have been forced to cut hundreds of school positions, deepening staff shortages and even closing schools. These cuts weaken not only our classrooms but the stability of the communities they anchor.
Republican leadership’s supposed solution is the Hope Scholarship, which diverts public dollars to private tuition and homeschooling. Each eligible student receives $5,267, but the program’s costs are exploding – from $23.7 million in 2024 to more than $100 million in 2025, with projections approaching $300 million in 2026. This spike comes from expanded eligibility: starting in 2026, even students already enrolled in private schools or homeschooling will qualify, turning the program into a massive taxpayer subsidy for families who can already afford alternatives. That is not school choice – it is an unfair transfer of resources away from the vast majority of children who remain in public schools.
Democrats support school choice when it expands opportunity fairly, but policy must balance individual options with the responsibility to guarantee quality education for all. To reverse the damage, Republicans in the legislature must take three urgent steps: restrict Hope Scholarship eligibility to families with genuine financial need and reinvest the savings into public schools; peg teacher salaries to inflation while raising them gradually to match neighboring states; and secure a long-term PEIA funding solution so educators have stable, affordable health insurance.
Anything less is a failure to meet our obligation to West Virginia’s children and to the professionals who serve them.
By investing in public education, we unlock talent, strengthen our economy, and build a brighter future for all. On behalf of Hardy County Democrats, I wish our students and teachers a happy, safe, and successful school year.
