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Updated: May 5, 2025 @ 12:14 am
Enrollment in West Virginia’s Hope Scholarship Program is expected to grow from around 11,000 students this year to 50,000 students by 2026, dramatically increasing the program’s financial footprint.
State Treasurer Larry Pack discusses the Hope Scholarship program, which is expected to continue to see increasing participation over the next few years.
Enrollment in West Virginia’s Hope Scholarship Program is expected to grow from around 11,000 students this year to 50,000 students by 2026, dramatically increasing the program’s financial footprint.
Quick take:
n Enrollment in West Virginia’s Hope Scholarship Program is expected to grow from around 11,000 students this year to 50,000 students by 2026, dramatically increasing the program’s financial footprint.
n The program, funded at about $100 million this year, is expected to require an increasingly large share of the state’s education spending in the years ahead.
n State officials expect rising revenues may cover the cost increases, but Treasury Secretary Larry Pack warned that expanding the program will likely force tough budget choices elsewhere.
CHARLESTON (WV News) — Lawmakers in the West Virginia Legislature approved nearly $100 million in funding for the Hope Scholarship Program during this year’s regular session.
West Virginia Treasury Secretary Larry Pack, whose office administers the program, said enrollment in the educational savings account program is expected to more than double from the upcoming school year to the next.
State Treasurer Larry Pack discusses the Hope Scholarship program. The program is expected to continue to grow, with the office’s “best guesstimate” being about 50,000 students participating by the start of the Fall 2026 semester, which would grow the program’s cost to around $300 million annually.
“We have given the governor and the Legislature a number of about 50,000 students for the school year beginning in August of 2026,” he said. “That is our best guesstimate.”
State Treasurer Larry Pack discusses the Hope Scholarship program, which is expected to continue to see increasing participation over the next few years.
After legislation to establish the program passed in 2021, the program launched during the 2023-24 school year with “about 2,000 students,” Pack said.
“The second year it was about 5,000 students, and this year is somewhere around 11,000 students,” he said. “We’re projecting about 20,000 students for the school year beginning in August of this year.”
The program provides funds to parents who wish to take their children out of the state’s public schools. The money can be used toward tuition at private, religious and charter schools, or toward the cost of homeschooling.
The amount parents receive under the program varies annually depending on the amount of state aid funding per pupil provided to county boards of education for public school students.
The scholarship amount is $4,921.39 for the 2024-25 school year and is expected to be $5,267.38 for the 2025-26 school year, according to information from the program website.
“It really just follows the school funding formula,” Pack said. “It cuts off at a certain point, but it does go up every year. The first year was about $4,500 per child, now it’s probably going to be next year closer to $5,500 per child. If that’s not changed it will continue to creep up a little bit just as the amount that we pay for our public school kids creeps up every year.”
With rapid, continued expansion of the program expected in the years ahead, it will be up to the governor and leaders in the Legislature to determine adequate levels of funding, Pack said.
“If it’s 50,000 students and $5,500 (per student), it’s basically $300 million,” he said. “So what’s the plans for that? That’s what we’ve been kind of working on. This year is about $100 million and the governor fully funded it in his budget, and the Legislature went along with it. He did [it] in like four different buckets — he took a little bit from here, a little from there — to be able to come up with the $100 million.”
The cost is expected to be about $200 million next year, Pack said.
“That’s also about the amount that our revenues should increase, just based upon inflation,” he said. “So I think we’ll have the money to do it. But we all know that when you say yes to something, you more than likely have said no to something else. That’s some of the discussions that I think we’ll be having at the Capitol over the next year.”
Senior Staff Writer Charles Young can be reached at 304-626-1447 or cyoung@theet.com
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