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The central reason for the Kump Education Center is to support and improve public education. In West Virginia we have the same basic needs that this state had a hundred years ago before H.G. Kump became governor. We need better schools and roads. These two things are necessary, and they both require constant care and attention. These are the two essential reasons that we must pay state taxes.
In most states of these United States of America, Education is the largest item on the budget. Now "Microschools" are trying to dip into that tax money and reduce the funding that can be used to provide qualified teachers, safe school buildings and bus transportation so that every child has equal access to learning opportunities.
Rural West Virginians have always had to work hard to get an education. H.G. Kump grew up on a farm 28 miles away from the nearest railway station, and it took two days over a muddy road to get there.
He had to walk to one-room schools where his parents and neighbors struggled to provide teachers who had to live in the families' homes. They would teach for a short time, and then move on to a better paying job. One teacher left when Kump was finishing the eighth grade, and all the parents asked young Kump to teach the other children everything he knew.
This experience is one reason why H.G. Kump made a County Unit School System his first priority in 1933. It was and still is necessary to collect and pool tax funding in order to provide for teachers, buildings and buses. A good consistent school system must be developed and maintained with public funding governed by elected officials.
An article on the "Opinion" page of the Charleston Gazette titled "Microschools: Are they a new market for hucksters?" tells the story of "Hive Learning Academy" in Martinsburg where parents paid tuition with their "Hope Scholarship" vouchers, also known as Education Savings Accounts [ESA]. The founders of the school said the enrollment numbers looked good, but on the first day of school only eight students showed, and the whole plan had to be abandoned.
The ESA money inspires parents to think they can reinvent education, but there is a great deal more to education than just getting that voucher. Microschools pop up in homes and storefronts, but they are not often run by certified teachers and responsible administrators.
There are old private schools with long traditions that may sell a strong curriculum for a price, but experimenting with your child's education is a risky business at best.
Good parents get involved at their children's schools and provide worthwhile afterschool options for them, but they do not try to reinvent the whole school system.