CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The House of Delegates Finance Committee approved two bills Monday totaling nearly $62 million to help fund the Hope Scholarship next fiscal year.
The first, HB 3356. proposes taking $28 million from the state’s general revenue fund surplus while HB 3357 would take $33.8 million from the surplus lottery fund.
The cost of the Hope Scholarship is expected to exceed $100 million next fiscal year. It cost $52 million this year.
Lawmakers created the scholarship program four years ago. Qualifying families who don’t have their children in the public school system receive $4,400 a year per child. More children will be eligible beginning next fall.
House Finance Committee Chairman Vernon Criss, R-Wood, explained during last week’s budget bill discussion that it was important to have some money from surplus ready for the scholarship this fall when school begins. He said the rest o the funding would come out of the budget that lawmakers will soon pass for next fiscal year.
Longtime Del. Bill Anderson, R-Wood, voted against both funding bills during Monday’s committee meeting. Anderson said he wouldn’t to bring attention to the rising cost of educational savings account.
“I have seen over the years an ever-increasing amount of money going into the Hope Scholarship. We’re eventually have to come to the realization that there’s going to have to be some limitation placed on the Hope Scholarship appropriations or it’s going to eat our budget up,” Anderson told the committee.
He said lawmakers had to make a similar move with the state’s merit-based scholarship.
“We passed in prior years the Promise Scholarship around here and eventually we had to place a cap on the appropriations to fund the Promise Scholarship,” Anderson said.
Hope could cost the state $300 million a year by the 2026-27 school year if more and more families choose to pull their kids out of public schools.
Both bills passed Monday head to the full House for consideration.
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