By Stephen Smoot
Many on both sides of the debate over traditional public education versus alternative forms of private schooling tend to frame the issue as either or. Larry Pack, West Virginia treasurer, does not see public education on one hand as either traditional schools or homeschooling, microschooling, or private schooling, but argued that the state should robustly support both.
Pack spent a full day last week in the Potomac Highlands. He toured the Dominion Energy power plant site to hear about proposed projects in Grant County, met with Grant and Hardy county officials in Petersburg, held discussions with the Hardy County Public Service District, and attended an arts event at Lost River. In a visit last year, he met with Pendleton County elected, government, and business leaders at Fisher Mountain.
“We need to do both,” stated Pack, “We need to give people the chance to get the best education possible.” He then related, “If you are a statewide official, you have to be supportive of public schools.” Then, he laid out ideas on how to bring needed support and improvement to them.
“We do public schools in West Virginia in a unique way,” he explained, discussing four poles of authority at the county level, the West Virginia Board of Education, the executive branch, and the legislative branch. “Those four groups have to get together” to successfully address issues faced. He stated that a sense of urgency is needed because “our public schools are in somewhat of a crisis.”
He explained that school administrators and local school systems encounter rules and regulations that hamstring their flexibility to address problems. “It’s not an ‘either or.’ We have to remember our public school system is under strain. We have to help them,” he said.
The structure of funding schools was set decades ago, but State Treasurer Pack pointed out that the state has lost 200,000 students during that period of time. “Students are different too, now. There are a lot more behavioral issues,” he said. Much of that comes from the social impacts of the decline of the traditional family and the opioid crisis. The problem of students bringing trauma and neglect from their homes “falls on the school system to take care of. They have to do a lot more that they didn’t have to do.”
It was not mentioned by Pack, but another issue in school funding needs lies in the significant expansion of equipment seen as a basic need for school function. In the 1980s going into the 90s, most schools lacked air conditioning and had relatively rudimentary technology needs. Teachers used decades-old film projectors and record players where they now need regular costly upgrades in technology.
Most schools also lacked central air conditioning until the last decade of the 20th century. Now HVAC represents one of the largest equipment expenditures for many systems.
The state treasurer praised the work of Communities In Schools, a program initiated by Jim Justice, former governor and now U.S. Senator, and championed by First Lady Cathy Justice. “That is definitely something we need to fund more,” he stated. Under current law, the funding for CIS for each county will dwindle to zero in the next few years unless the state legislature revisits the issue. “We’re big believers in it,” he added, going on to say that “you can’t put a dollar amount to” the services provided and impact created by CIS. “They can catch a child having trouble and get them turned around,” he went on to say.
Pack then noted another way he felt the state must show support for public education. “We are woefully underpaying our teachers,” added the state treasurer, calling them “our most valuable players.”
“Every one of us can remember two or three teachers who helped them get where they are in life,” said Pack, who stated that he could name many more in his own life. He shared that discussion of a $50,000 per year floor for teacher salaries will return next legislative session.
Pack has also shared the success of the HOPE Scholarship program in supporting alternative educational paths and parental choice among them. He currently serves as chairman of the HOPE Scholarship board. He released the results of a survey of 900 participants that reflected 96 percent satisfaction with the program that allows for parental choice in use of education funds. “The HOPE Scholarship was created to put parents in the driver’s seat when it comes to their child’s education, and these responses show families are using that freedom in many different ways,” said Pack in the release.
Parents have a number of reasons for selecting alternative models, including a desire for religious instruction, difficulty of traumatized students in adapting to a traditional public school setting, a preference for a model, such as classical, unavailable in the school system, or myriad other motivations.
“There are so many good stories about what’s happening,” he added, going on to explain that parents had more options for alternative education than they had prior to the HOPE Scholarship. That included selections from different types of schools, such as those offering education in the classical tradition, Catholic and other Christian schools, microschools, and more. Additionally, he shared that half of homeschooled students in West Virginia decline to apply for HOPE support.
About 26,000 students rely on HOPE funding to access their mode of education apart from the public school system.
He reiterated his belief that West Virginia needs the traditional and the alternative models of education. “We have to fight for both.”
