While issues like arming teachers and school discipline have sucked air out of the room this session, education funding snapped into sharp focus last week as West Virginia lawmakers hashed out the state budget.
The federal government could potentially ask the state to give back $465 million in money that went towards education during the COVID-19 pandemic. West Virginia didn’t spend enough of its own dollars on education, which was part of the deal for getting the money.
With less than a week left in the session — and a budget yet to be passed — lawmakers are now trying to figure out how to pass a budget when they don’t know the status of nearly a tenth of it.
What’s the situation with the $465 million federal COVID clawback?
West Virginia got around $1 billion from the federal government to help fund education during the dark days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of that money went to county school systems to help them adjust to the pandemic and eventually, help them return to in-person instruction.
Parents will remember schools being shuttered and kids being cooped up in the house, receiving instructions via iPad. Parents lucky enough to work remotely had to juggle their jobs with tutoring on Common Core mathematics. Frontline workers had to make do, scrambling to find child care as desks gathered dust in the state’s schools.
During this time, the federal government rolled out a number of acronymized programs to help the situation: CARES, CRSSA, ARP, ESSER, GEER etc. The big takeaway here is the state received — and has spent — hundreds of millions of federal COVID dollars.
A chunk of that money went to education: to update technology for remote instruction, buy supplies and personal protective equipment for when students returned to school, provide meals while children were home and provide mental health support, along with much more.
To get that money, the state signed an agreement with the feds, where they agreed to keep education spending at 41% of the state budget, the average across the three years before the pandemic. The reason for maintaining that percentage was to make sure states weren’t using federal dollars in lieu of state funding.
The problem, according to documents submitted to federal officials, is the state kept its education spending the same while the overall budget grew. In 2022, the state fell $23 million shy of reaching that 41% goal, and got a waiver from the federal government. In 2023, that number grew to more than $400 million and a waiver request is pending.
So there are two choices for the state moving forward: either spend enough on schools to satisfy the feds, or cut a check to Uncle Sam and make it right.
Where did that money go?
When news broke about the potential “clawback” last week, initial reports linked the issues to a November 2023 report released last year that found misspending and poor accounting oversight with how COVID monies were used by local school boards.
But as the dust settled and more information came out, it quickly became clear those issues had nothing to do with the fiscal situation facing lawmakers.
“The sole issue raised in the federal rules is whether West Virginia’s spending on education rose enough in proportion to the state’s overall spending,” Gov. Jim Justice said in a press release over the weekend.
Justice went on to say extra surplus monies went into funding roads, jail improvements, economic development and the now broken-up Department of Health and Human Resources.
In 2022 — the year that came up a little short — the state applied for and received a waiver from the U.S. Department of Education. One of the reasons cited in granting that waiver is that the state made it right in a later budget by committing $40 million to the School Building Authority.
The authority funds tens of millions of dollars in new school buildings and renovations around the state.
Despite $110 million in funding distributed in December 2023, there was not enough money for some projects in various schools to fix corroding water and sewage lines, overhaul HVAC systems or replace aging buildings.
How have lawmakers reacted?
Justice continues to push for lawmakers to pass his proposed $5.2 billion budget, which includes pay raises and more than $600 million in surplus spending.
On Feb. 28, the day prior to the news of this possible clawback breaking, the Senate passed its version of the budget. It came in a little under the governor’s request and did not include pay raises, but kept about $529 million in surplus spending.
But when news broke about the potential hole, House delegates sharpened their axes to cut surplus spending, whittling it down to about $200 million, which would be split between the governor’s civil contingent fund and filling a hole in Medicaid funding.
On Tuesday, there was much sound and fury on the House floor, as lawmakers — mainly Democrats — attempted to get various surplus projects back into the budget.
Del. Larry Rowe, D-Kanawha, pitched $50 million funding for a new agriculture lab at West Virginia State University, a project the Governor had touted in his State of the State address.
Del. Kayla Young, D-Kanawha, asked for surplus money for child care, noting that lawmakers said prior to the session that the issue was a priority but had yet to follow through.
Del. Ric Griffith, D-Wayne, asked for improvements at the Veterans Home in Barboursville and funding for crisis pregnancy centers, which he called a promise the legislature had made when it passed a near-total abortion ban.
And each time, Del. John Hardy, R-Berkeley, stood up and urged fellow lawmakers to reject each of the requests.
“Once we get some more clarity from the executive branch about this potential clawback or shortfall, we’ll have a better idea of what we can do,” he said.
One way to help fix the situation is by spending some of the $465 million that could be owed to the feds on education — like through pay raises for teachers ($77 million) and adding $150 million to the School Building Authority, according to House Finance Chair Vernon Criss, R-Wood.
Lawmakers have repeatedly said they expect to come back in May to finalize the budget after federal officials decide whether or not to grant the state a waiver.