CHARLESTON, W.VA.- The West Virginia Board of Education (WVBE) and State Superintendent of Schools, through their attorneys, recently filed a response in the Circuit Court of Kanawha County in the case of Beaver v. Moore, in support of the parents’ request that the Court enjoin the unconstitutional diversion of public funds from public schools authorized by the West Virginia Legislature in the Hope Scholarship Program.
The people of this State made a choice in 1863 when they enshrined public education as a fundamental right in West Virginia’s constitution. Thereafter, when the people of this State ratified the provision in the State’s constitution that entrusts the supervision of the public schools to the West Virginia Board of Education, they gave the Board the independent responsibility to protect and defend that constitutional choice.
The Hope Scholarship Program incentivizes students to exit the public school system and drains needed public funds from the state’s public schools. As a result, it violates the West Virginia Constitution as it prevents the West Virginia Board of Education from providing a thorough and efficient education for all children. It is the Board’s intent to assert that position in the Circuit Court of Kanawha County and to support the parents who have initiated legal action in this matter.
The West Virginia Board of Education intends to take every action it can to protect public education and the children it serves.