Pack talks Hope Scholarship, unclaimed property
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ELKINS -- State Treasurer Larry Pack visited Elkins Thursday evening, speaking with The Inter-Mountain about the success of the Hope Scholarship Program, the increase in the program’s participants around the state, how to claim unclaimed property and more.
Pack was visiting Elkins to speak at the National Heritage Area Conference Reception. Pack told The Inter-Mountain he planned to talk about the importance of tourism to the state’s economy, and how important it is to promote and invest in tourism due to the state’s “absolutely beautiful” scenery. He noted how it’s “always great” to visit Randolph County and Elkins.
On Monday, Pack, who serves as Chairman of the Hope Scholarship Board, announced that 98% of families participating in the Hope Scholarship are “satisfied with the program.” According to a press release from the Treasurer’s Office, nearly 900 parents responded to the survey, which was designed “to better understand families' experiences with the program and to identify the educational opportunities and services they value most.”
“We really did (the survey), not only to get information for us but to be able to get information for the Legislature as to what people thought about the program… overall, people were really satisfied with the program,” Pack told The Inter-Mountain. “I think we had a couple of pointers. There were things we can do better, but that’s what you want, right? What is it we can do better?”
Pack said officials will continue to do the survey each year and may change the questions to get more information. He said the survey helps give them a general direction of where to take the program next.
Recently, it was announced that Hope Scholarship participation in Upshur and Randolph counties had roughly doubled over last year. Upshur County Schools reported a rise from 146 students last year to 273 this year, and Randolph County Schools reported a participation increase of 119%, from 193 students to 423 students in one year. Pack credits these large increases with it being the first year that the program has allowed universal eligibility for K-12. Initially, the program only applied to kindergarten and first-grade students.
“So we went from about 15,000 statewide to this school year about 25,000, so there was an increase of about 10,000 students,” Pack said. “We’re still trying to calculate all the numbers, but we think most of those students were either homeschool students, online students or microschool students, because a lot of the private school students were already in the program. There was some increase in private, but most of it has to do with homeschool, and at that, there’s still only about 50% of the homeschool students that we’re aware of in West Virginia that are taking advantage of the program.”
When asked if a doubled participation rate this year was consistent in every county, Pack said he believed so, and noted that his office was about to put out its annual report “within the next month.” He explained that the report will show where money was spent last year, and how many Hope Scholarship students are in each area. The Treasurer added that, around Christmas, his office will try and put out information for each county.
Pack also noted officials did not think the increase in participants came directly out of the public school system.
“When you’re struggling like our public school systems are because, and it’s a nationwide thing, people in the United States are getting older, we’re having less children, we’re starting later having children, all those things, so there’s less children in the system.” Pack said. “So that’s one of the biggest things that’s really impacting our public schools. The way I look at it, even if they lose 50 or 100 students in a county system, it can really hurt the finances of the county system. So, we really have to focus, I think, on this legislative session doing things to help our public schools. I think we will and I sure hope we will.”
In July, Pack’s office announced two instances of fraud in the Hope Scholarship Program, disqualifying one private school in Randolph County from participating and placing another private school with a location in Tucker County on probation. At the time, Pack stated that there was “very little fraud and misconduct” in the program and that they would take “swift and decisive action” when their investigations warrant it.
When asked Thursday what his office was doing to combat any possible fraud in the future, Pack said he has a “pretty robust” investigation team that works hard to make sure that only the proper people are able to participate in the program.
Pack explained that, when it comes to schools within the program, they have requirements that must be met. If the requirements are not met, Pack said officials meet with the school and “try to teach them up,” but if nothing changes, they “don’t suppose they have any choice” but to disqualify the school from the program.
“Most people fully comply, but there’s always a few (who don’t), but again, we take it seriously,” Pack said. “We have a whole group of things we check to make sure the students are eligible. That they’re the right age, that they’re citizens of West Virginia, all those things. So we’re always watching and making sure… cause it is taxpayers’ money.”
Pack also said his office continues to get more and more money in for unclaimed property, and he explained that they have been trying to get as much information about claiming unclaimed property as possible. He stated, when his office does public check presentations, TV opportunities and news stories for unclaimed property, they tend to see more traffic on their website from the area the presentation or story took place in.
Last year, the Treasurer’s Office gave back around $40 million in unclaimed property to West Virginians, but officials still have “over half a billion dollars” in unclaimed property to give out. Pack advised that West Virginians should visit wvunclaimedproperty.gov, type in their name and their family members’ names, including nicknames, and see if they’re eligible to claim unclaimed property. He said “you’d be surprised” by the results.