New Bill and New Concerns

A new bill, originating in the House Finance committee, was introduced this past Wednesday, February 18. Not a “homeschooling” bill, it only directly affects the Hope Scholarship program, particularly Hope students with an IIP.  However, it contains aspects that should interest every homeschooling family.  Please read on to the end!

This new bill caps the Hope Scholarship amount and also makes changes to “Qualifying Expenses.” It is framed by supporters as a necessary adjustment in the Hope program.

Delegate Joe Statler is quoted in a WV Metro News article: “Cost has to be contained. We want to spend as much as it takes for education, but the sky is not the limit.”  According to the Metro News article, the Hope program anticipates an increased cost of $127 million this coming year when it becomes fully universal.

These changes are being debated and will continue to be, but we want to draw attention to a couple subtle aspects that may be overlooked by most but which potentially have important ramifications. These are related to a new requirement that all Hope IIP students would have to take the comprehensive annual assessments required of public school students.

Let’s look at three aspects of this new requirement.

1.  This testing appears to be an additional requirement of all Hope IIP students, not just an additional option for the annual assessment. No required score is mentioned, but only that the assessment must be taken to remain eligible for Hope. This understanding is in keeping with statements made by Paul Hardesty, President of the state BOE and former state senator, on February 16th on TalkLine Radio: “Any child that takes WV tax dollars whether it be Public School, Hope Scholarship or Homeschool, whatever model they choose, if they are the recipient of any WV tax dollars, let us all agree to take the same summative assessment test to where we can compare apples to apples instead of apples to oranges and we can develop some baseline sustainable data going forward and work from that point forward.” While the wording and placement makes this testing appear to be an additional and universal IIP requirement, we have noticed that the wording and placement could also be confusing. Some may interpret it differently. If the bill moves forward, additional legal counsel will be warranted. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2. We are concerned that the Hope option that basically mirrors “homeschooling” is being unilaterally targeted. We find it interesting that this only applies to Hope IIP students. If the purpose is to compare all students who receive public monies in the same manner, it should apply to all Hope students, not just those using IIPs. That is particularly concerning given the common assumption that in the fall of 2026, the number of students using Exemption k (private school) and Exemption c (private homeschool) will plummet as a large percentage switch to Exemption m (Hope Scholarship) as soon as they are eligible. That could leave the number of students using the traditional homeschool exemption (Exemption c) as a tiny minority. Early homeschoolers worked hard to win this exemption, and CHEWV has worked hard to protect it for over 40 years. If this happens, suddenly the vast majority of students being educated at home will find themselves required to take the state’s mandated curriculum test.       _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. We want to emphasize that the state test is different from a nationally-normed standardized test. It is different in its design, purpose, use, and usefulness. Nationally-normed tests like the Iowa and Stanford are designed to be free of curriculum bias, but WV test is designed specifically to test mastery of WV state standards/curriculum. If the “apples to apples” assessment for all publicly funded students is the state test, this represents a subtle, but significant, move toward pushing parents to teach the same material that is taught in the public school system . _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

CHEWV has cautioned for twenty years or more about “strings attached” to public funding. Folks continue to question that suggestion despite the fact that IIP students were more regulated from the onset. However, this new committee bill, and the discussions and interviews accompanying it, seem to lend credence to our concerns.

This also illustrates why CHEWV has fought hard to keep privately funded homeschoolers completely separate from publicly funded ones in the state code. It is essential that proposals like this one do not adversely affect Exemption c homeschooling freedoms, hard won over thirty years.

We cautioned that the strings would come, and we caution now that it will be an ever-present battle to keep all homeschoolers from getting entangled in these same strings. Legislators will come and go. Promises made by one will not be kept by the other. It will be increasingly easy to “lump all homeschoolers together.”

While it’s not unexpected or unreasonable that the state would want to know what educational return it is getting on its multi-million dollar Hope investment, families really need to begin weighing whether the money is worth the cost.

NOTE: The entire text of the bill can be read here.  Underlined portions are new, while current wording that would be removed is shown as strike through.  Several changes are proposed in the “Qualifying Expenses” section of the law (18-37-1).