Much like a lot of things these days, a speech given last week by West Virginia Board of Education President Paul Hardesty has become a Rorschach test depending on where you stand on the issue of public education versus “school choice.”

During the state Board of Education’s regular meeting last week, Hardesty’s message was simple: if you believe in the notion of competition improving the quality of education, then lawmakers need to untie the hands of their local teachers and educators so they can better compete with private schools and home schooling.

To demonstrate how county school systems have been handcuffed, he placed on his desk a stack of books that contained the entirety of State Code that regulates public education. He placed that stack next to one sheet of paper that included the regulations on the public charter school system, and next to that a postcard that represented the number of regulations on home school parents.

Frankly, it was a powerful visual that helped make Hardesty’s main point. West Virginia’s public education system, due to decades of overregulation by previous legislatures and as well as decreasing enrollment over that same period of time, has created a situation where counties are having to consolidate and/or close schools. And because of State Code, the options for county school systems are limited.

“There is a real misconception amongst the voters and the general public in the State of West Virginia of what that book actually is and who the actual author of that book is,” Hardesty said. “Ladies and gentlemen, I assure you the author of that book is not the West Virginia Board of Education nor the West Virginia Department of Education. This is a book of school law created…by a bicameral legislature.”

Unfortunately, some have decided to focus on Hardesty’s complaints about the effects of incentivized school choice on the public school system. Jason Huffman, the president of the West Virginia chapter of conservative advocacy organization Americans for Prosperity, even called on Hardesty to resign.

“In a brazen, misleading attack on school choice, West Virginia State School Board President Paul Hardesty wants to let government pick winners and losers when it comes to who gets access to the right education for their child. Disqualifying,” Huffman said on social media. “On behalf of (AFP-WV) activists across the state, I’m calling for his immediate resignation.”

I’m not sure a public education official advocating for public education is an action that requires resignation. One might even say that’s his job to do that.

To be fair, West Virginia’s student enrollment decline long pre-dates the creation of the public charter school pilot program in 2019 and the creation of the Hope Scholarship educational voucher program a few years later. But after the school shutdowns during COVID-19, there has been a rush of families leaving the public school system not just in West Virginia, but across the nation.

The issue for Hardesty wasn’t that West Virginia offers a very loose school choice program; it’s that the Republican-led Legislature since 2018 has mostly focused on school choice at the near-expense of public schools. The one real exception to that is the Third Grade Success Act passed in 2023 and already showing some signs of improving math and reading proficiency.

Most of the growth in school choice has been families leaving the public school system to be able to qualify for the Hope Scholarship, which is only available to public school students at the moment. Hope gives parents the equivalent of their student’s per-pupil state school aid formula expenditure paid through the general revenue fund.

While it takes no direct money from the county school system at first, counties do have to factor in losing those students in their county school budgets in the following school year. Enrollment numbers are certified in October, and those enrollment numbers determine how much a county receives the following school year from the state school aid formula.

While there have been some tweaks to the school aid formula in recent years, there has not been a substantial reform of the formula. In many ways, our school systems operate under laws and funding mechanisms as if it’s still the 1990s. There was talk last year by lawmakers about school aid formula reforms, but honestly it is such a heavy lift that doing it through a normal 60-day session is not ideal. It needs its own dedicated special session.

Supporters of school choice say they are not out to destroy public schools; they say they simply want to compete. If so, then they should welcome any reforms to chapters 18 and 18A of state code, untie both hands of the 55-county public school systems, and make the competition fair.

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Speaking of the Hope Scholarship, it opens up to all eligible West Virginia students – public, private and home school – beginning in fiscal year 2027. More than $110 million was budgeted for the program for the current fiscal year, but the State Treasurer’s Office which manages the program estimates it could cost more than $244 million for the next fiscal year, and other estimates place the cost at $300 million for taxpayers.

In short, the state will need to come up with another $134 million to $190 million to fully fund Hope. As of September, the state had more than $161 million in unappropriated monies in the general revenue fund. The state ended September with a $43.7 million surplus for the month, and we have nine months left in the current fiscal year.

But now, State Treasurer Larry Pack wants Gov. Patrick Morrisey to call a special session so the Legislature can consider a three-year pause in income tax collections on tips and overtime retroactive to Jan. 1 of this tax year. Pack estimates it would return $25 million to eligible taxpayers in year one of the three-year pause, though I’ve heard tell of another estimate that places it closer to $75 million per year.

As one person asked me: how can Pack pay for a tax cut on tips and overtime while fully funding the Hope Scholarship?