Hope Scholarship changes are shifting the educational landscape in West Virginia

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Mia Flaim, an undergraduate biology student at Concord University, attended five public and private schools and has experience with a homeschooled regimen. Transferring schools to fulfill her mother’s career aspirations, then adjusting to online lectures after COVID, Flaim says she appreciated the opportunities that came from each experience. But with sensory needs and aversions, it was difficult for her to feel accommodated in a public education setting. 

Flaim said that in homeschooling environments, parents take on both instruction and behavioral guidance, while public school teachers must manage discipline alongside academic responsibilities, often without the resources to address underlying mental health needs. 

According to a report from the West Virginia Department of Education, proficiency rates were significantly higher for students who were consistently present than for students who were chronically absent.

As families look into alternatives for public school, the West Virginia Legislature has approved funding that provides more options. In this year's state budget, lawmakers expanded funding to allow the Hope Scholarship to take effect, which gives roughly $5,435.62 to use for private school tuition, homeschooling and more. This gradual process led to a full expansion, giving all students in West Virginia access to the scholarship. 

“I feel like the Hope Scholarship could be especially helpful to neurodivergent kids,” Flaim said. “I would say my main difference between my year of homeschooling and all other schooling was the freedom to work at my own pace; less pressure meant more curiosity, and I felt much calmer and thus more able to learn.”

Jessica Dobrinsky, writer and researcher on health policy and the founder of JLD Policy Solutions, a policy consulting firm, said the scholarship is great for both families and the community. 

“It introduces this competitive market,” she said. “It can reduce the size of the classroom; it can take the load off of teachers who are expected to manage overflowing classrooms and all these other things that teachers really shouldn’t be required to do, like emotional regulation. It’s an empowerment across the system.”

The scholarship impacts the public school system, too. Eddie Campbell Jr., superintendent of Monongalia County Schools, said if the legislative body can’t, or won’t, address the public school formula because of a lack of funds, but there is $250,000 available for Hope Scholarship money, he would be worried. 

“I’m not necessarily concerned that a pool of money has been provided for the Hope Scholarship; I just don’t want that to become an excuse for why we can’t address the inadequacy of the current funding formula for public schools,” he said.

Campbell emphasized that the public school funding formula has been a longstanding flashpoint for criticism of state policy, especially in rural districts. 

Another issue for public schools is the lack of an organized system for tracking the progress of students being homeschooled. There isn’t a standardized test required for homeschooled students like there is for public schools. 

“There needs to be an oversight body that homeschool parents report to, that holds them accountable for the education that their children are getting,” Campbell said. “It shouldn’t be on the public school system to provide that accountability.”

Senate Education Chair Amy Grady, R-Mason, acknowledged that many students who are homeschooled end up transitioning back into the public school system and that there needs to be an easier method of tracking progress. Without a measurement system, it’s difficult to know where to place the students.

“We want to make sure we protect the freedoms of parents [to choose to homeschool their children], but also, making sure those kids have freedoms as well,” she said. “We want to have some accountability to make sure that [homeschooled] kids aren’t just sitting at home doing nothing.”

Aaron Reedy, a graduate of Morgantown High School and a current AmeriCorps VISTA for the WVU School of Nursing, acknowledged the risks of being homeschooled. 

“Homeschooling, I feel, can be beneficial if students and parents are very self-disciplined, but not many families have the resources to give so much time and energy to instructing their own children," he said. “Homeschooled children also really miss out on social interaction and connecting with their peers. Many people seem to think it’s noticeable when someone was homeschooled even when they’re in their 20s or 30s.”

Flaim, though, praises homeschooling for its ability to prepare her for the future.

“Public school has always seemed so rigid and conformist to me,” she said. “I think it needs serious reform in how it treats its students as numbers instead of learning beings. Educationally, it did mostly prepare me for college, but until learning is treated as a dialogue instead of a one-way script, nothing will change.”

Flaim said her experience with homeschooling was different from public and private schools because she had more freedom to work at her own pace. She thinks all students should have the privilege of choosing their own educational settings. 

“I support additional funding for the Hope Scholarship because kids deserve to learn in environments that work for them, not environments they are expected to work for and conform to,” Flaim said.

Grady said the next legislative session may see a more cohesive method in determining the progress of students being homeschooled that will help compare their education to public school, particularly as students transition between educational settings.