Photo provided by: West Virginia State Capitol Photo Shoot
During the March 4th House Finance Committee meeting, Rep. Bill Anderson (R-Wood) looks over the delegate version of the House budget bill.
CHARLESTON — West Virginia has been indicted for failing to comply with rules set by the U.S. Department of Education to keep the state's education spending at a certain level in exchange for the use of more than $1.1 billion in COVID-19 funds. A ministry official said there is a high possibility that he will receive a second exemption. Said.
U.S. Department of Education officials said last week that after West Virginia accepted the state's request, the state may have to pay more in education costs if it does not grant the state's second and final waiver request. A background briefing was held with reporters regarding the $465 million deal. Three divisions of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a decision on the exemption could be made by June.
This opens up the possibility of a special session of Congress to reinstate certain items in the 2025 General Fund budget passed on Saturday night, the last day of the 2024 session.
A ministry official said, “I can't promise a specific date, but personally I would be distraught if it took until June.'' “I wish we could do something sooner.”
The state received more than $1.1 billion from 2020 to 2021 through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act, and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). received. These funds disappeared. Applies to all 55 county school systems. Of this, more than $834 million has been spent as of the end of 2023.
However, the final rule enacted to help states maintain spending eligibility for CRRSA and ARPA funds will require states to make certain adjustments to their total education spending compared to their total budgeted spending, with final guidance released in August 2022. We were asked to keep it at an average value. This percentage is based on the average of three fiscal years (2017, 2018, and 2019) prior to the COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2020.
West Virginia's baseline proportional education spending level was 41.6%. However, state aid for K-12 education in fiscal year 2022 was $2 billion, or 37.5%, below the required spending level. State Department of Education officials, led by Gov. Jim Justice and former state Superintendent Clayton Birch, applied for the waiver on June 14, 2022.
State officials said the state's student aid system for counties is based on per-student enrollment, but even though enrollment declined over the same period, K-12 enrollment in the previous school year increased. He explained that this could indicate an increase in spending. State officials were also able to demonstrate increased education spending through other means, including teacher pay increases, increased funding for School Construction Authority projects, deferred maintenance for existing schools, and the Governor's School Communities Program. .
As a result, the state was able to improve its education spending share from 37.5% to 40.6%. The U.S. Department of Education granted the state's fiscal year 2022 waiver on June 12, 2023. However, even though state support for K-12 education increased to $2.1 billion, state education spending as a share of total state spending was 34.7%. Part of the reason is by maintaining an artificially flat general fund budget and ending fiscal year 2023 with her more than $1.8 billion in surplus tax collections.
On February 21, West Virginia reapplied to the U.S. Department of Education for a second waiver for the 2023 school year. Five states, including West Virginia, have also applied for exemptions for fiscal year 2023, according to department officials. States also must submit additional data to the department by Friday that will be used to determine whether to grant a waiver.
“It's not just West Virginia. There are other states,” a department official said. “We don't have the final data from these states because of the March 15 deadline. So kudos to West Virginia for working on this before the March 15 deadline.”
State officials said the financial gap to meet West Virginia's 41.6 percent proportionate education spending standard is $465 million, but the U.S. Department of Education could not confirm the specific amount. Congress just passed Senate Bill 200, the budget for fiscal year 2025 that begins in July, which also includes teacher pay raises and $150 million in funding for the School Construction Authority.
State officials also plan to leverage continued base funding increases, such as funding from the Third Grade Success Act, which took effect this school year, to fill gaps in education funding. The Third Grade Success Act included continued funding to install assistive devices in early elementary classrooms.
If a waiver is not granted, there are several mechanisms the U.S. Department of Education could consider for states (such as returning federal COVID-19 funds), but so far officials have said He said he had never denied an exemption.
“West Virginia is ahead of other states in some ways because we have worked hard to update our data and update our exemptions before the March 15 deadline, which is earlier than other states,” one department official said. said.
The proposed budget, SB200, set the General Fund budget at $4.996 billion starting Monday, July 1st. However, a section known as the back side of the budget – which lists the budget priorities to be funded from surplus tax revenue available at the end of the current fiscal year on Sunday June 30th – states that if the exemption is not granted, It was left thin in preparation.
The state is expected to end the current fiscal year with nearly $800 million more than projected revenue. If the waiver is granted, lawmakers hope to return to Charleston as early as May for a special session to restore cut spending and add line items to the back of the budget for fiscal year 2025.
