By Stephen Smoot
At the opening of the Cold War, the United States and Soviet Union briefly aspired to building larger and larger hydrogen fusion bombs. The USSR’s Tsar Bomba exploded with the power of 50 megatons, shattering glass in buildings as far away as England away and completely obliterated the surface of a deserted Arctic island to this very day. Its shockwave circled the earth three times before dissipating.
House Bill 4037 has more potential for damage if unleashed by the State Legislature on the Mountain State body politic.
A small number of county school systems, whether through hard luck, poor decision-making, or a combination of both, find themselves in serious financial trouble coming into 2026. As Delegate Pat Mcgeehan (R-Hancock) noted about his home county’s school district, lack of understanding of American Rescue Plan Act funds and their best use has led to systems facing crisis.
That said, as Pendleton County Schools Treasurer J. P. Mowery explained to his county’s Board of Education last week, most West Virginia county school systems have treated their financial public trust with self-discipline and remain in good financial shape.
One proposal coming from Charleston envisions a consolidation of most county school districts into larger regional entities. House Bill 4037 proposes that all county school systems be consolidated with each other or merge into regional formations totaling no more than 27.
Delegate Phil Mallow (R-Marion County) introduced this bill in the opening week of the session. It would form a committee to study how to merge these districts together by 2029. The bill, if passed, would “require county school districts be unified with other county school districts by July 1, 2029; require State Board of Education to study and provide recommendation regarding school district unification by October 31, 2026; creating School District Unification Committee to assist State Board of Education; and authorizing rulemaking to aid in the transition process.”
Some policies look tremendously good at the 30,000 foot level. One of the challenges of school system finances comes in the fact that any school system of any size has baseline requirements of operation. School systems need a Board, a Superintendent, a central office building and staff. Added to that are state and federal mandates, a number partially or not funded, that each system must engage.
Before the consideration of a single school or a single student, county school systems incur these costs. The largest and the smallest of systems have fundamental roles to fill, buildings to maintain, and other costs of operation.
HB 4037 has the goal of reducing taxpayer spending in West Virginia through elimination of these systems, but is the policy wise?
Policies that look pretty good at 30,000 feet will reveal a number of flaws and negatives when coming down to 3,000 or 300 feet. Once one takes a good look at the ground, HB 4037 looks like an increasingly terrible idea because of the vitality of community identity through county culture, the popular voice in school governance, and the fact that any change brings unintended consequences.
The bigger the change, the bigger the negative consequences, and also the cost in trying to implement the measure, fight opposition, and also correct the problems that will pop up as it goes. At the end of the day, HB 4037 could cost the state tremendously.
West Virginia and Kentucky, among a handful of other states, have a rather unique local political culture. When a West Virginian who lives in a small town or no town at all hears the question “where are you from?” most give the kneejerk answer of what county they reside in. Each county in West Virginia has its own unique culture and set of subcultures.
An outsider may look at the Potomac Highlands counties, or those in North Central West Virginia, as being extremely similar to each other. No one who has lived in Hardy or Pendleton will ever mistake their county for Grant or Mineral. No one who has lived in Harrison County will see it as almost indistinguishable to its own neighbors.
The question of culture only sets the table, however.
The main course comes in the realities of larger and smaller county politics.
In no West Virginia political universe will the distribution of power and benefits be objectively fair in such a deal and certainly will never be perceived as such. Consider a potential merging of the counties of Pendleton and Randolph as hypothetical examples.
Remember, this is not an active proposal but a hypothetical situation
Randolph County has a much larger population, larger size, larger everything than Pendleton. Should the two counties merge systems, Randolph County would dominate the merged two systems. This would be the same even if Grant and or Tucker were added.
Randolph County, however, has put itself in a position where it is in troubled financial condition. It has been forced to consider shutting down schools a long distance away from the county seat in addition to eliminating positions. Even within the current Randolph County school system, those in rural and outlying areas have seen their needs ignored.
Pendleton County is one of the smallest counties in the state, but with one of the best run school systems. It meticulously avoided using ARPA and other one time aid funds for hiring personnel or making long-term commitments. Its school system enjoys a healthy cash balance that can bring it through a reasonable period of unexpected expenses or diminishing federal and state aid.
Combining it with counties that have not fared so well, especially when Pendleton County’s population would lose authority over their own schools, would be a slap in the face of systems that have sound fiscal management practices. When counties do the right thing and take care of their business in the right ways, solutions to address those who have not governed themselves as well should not penalize those that have.
Additionally, not much galvanizes an entire community more than the possibility of losing part of its identity through loss of a school. Imagine the absolute statewide furor of entire county populations losing their say over their own school systems.
Those who look at political fallout from an issue first should note that House Bill 4037 all by its lonesome would turn tens of thousands of happy citizens into fire breathing radicals overnight. Are legislators prepared for three years of endless battles, arguments, and struggle?
All of them would turn their fire onto the State Legislature because this is an issue that non political people care very much about. On the other hand, one cannot imagine people getting emotionally excited over the possibility that their schools will be run by someone from another county, or that resources from their more affluent county would be used somewhere else.
Fury would not come as much from hurt pride as from the loss of a say over ones own schools, especially in rural communities. When parents or community members go to the central office or to a county Board of Education meeting, they engage with friends and neighbors when they have ideas or issues. Many in the community attended school with those in education leadership now.
Problems get solved as between neighbors most of the time, instead of merely government and citizen. When the school system looks to fundraise, they know which businesses and individuals in the community support them the most. When people come to these meetings with concerns, they do so gently and with much less rancor than elsewhere.
Additionally, West Virginia already attempted this before with Regional Education Service Agencies. By 2018, Governor Jim Justice and many in the State Legislature observed increasing waste as RESAs spent too much on administration and not enough on providing the services for which they were created.
Regionalism led to waste because RESAs had few eyes on them. The public does not engage regional groups as they do county. Common knowledge of their existence was not widespread, much less what they do.
One way that regionalism can bring benefits would lie in creating regional pools of administrative and financial ability. A regional organization could offer to counties that lack it central office expertise in fields where experience and talent are hard to find. It is in central offices that many problems arise through lack of experience in key fields.
Such an organization could also assist with grant application as well. One could see this operating on a similar model to the Regional Planning and Development Councils. Local governments in this model can opt in to use it as a resource rather than having to submit to, from their point of view, an alien authority. Planning and development meetings help to create benefits and efficiencies without taking authority from people in local communities.
Finally, for those who consider these issues in terms of different areas of political thought, political conservatism starts with conserving the local community. County school systems that are run economically, reflect the values of their community, strive to provide good service and do so, while not interfering with the rights of all to pursue different forms of education are inherently conservative.
HB 4037 is a great example of the road to perdition paved with good intentions. Saving tax dollars is the right idea, but taking a county’s authority over schools away from it is a bad idea Plus the viscous and unnecessary, especially in times already frayed, fight to make it happen will bring negative consequences across the board.
