Students and recent graduates in the Mountain State are preparing for life after high school. Whether it’s going to college, entering the workforce or following an uncharted path, they started in the same place — West Virginia’s public school system.
In the past year, 14 public schools have closed their doors in West Virginia despite 42% of the 2025 state budget going to public education. State school board superintendent Paul Hardesty warned that more were going to close in the coming years. Yet, there is no cap on the Hope Scholarship, which subsidizes private and home schooling, and nationally, West Virginia ranks at the bottom for education in terms of academic achievement.
Their experiences in the state’s schools have given them a prime seat to evaluate how the school system could better prepare them for the next part of their lives. From improving curriculum to accommodating students in all walks of life, they share how public education could be improved.
Here are some of their stories.
Putting guardrails on Hope
Walking into Elk Valley Christian School for the first time, Eric Wilkinson was ready for a fresh start. He had entered kindergarten in the Clay County school system before being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in second grade and transitioning to homebound schooling in fourth grade.
As the end of his middle school years approached, Wilkinson applied to a religious private school offering small class sizes and more accommodations — including one for Corbin, his service dog. Wilkinson said the size of the public schools kept him from getting the specialized attention he needed.
“The only problem is the public schools in the area are massive,” he said.
He received the Hope Scholarship for three and a half years while he attended Elk Valley Christian. Although he benefited, Wilkinson’s views on Hope were shaped by what he saw and how it affected those in the system.
Wilkinson said the funding for Hope takes money away from teachers, cooks and janitors — all essential to a functioning school. Meanwhile, his mother, a public school educator, had to pick up extra work to pay for his education. Hope only covered a portion of his tuition at private school.
He’s a supporter of the Hope Scholarship, but wants guardrails put in place.
“If you are going to be homeschooled or in a Christian school, you have to take the same standardized testing that the public schools have to take,” Wilkinson said. “That way we can evaluate: ‘Are you actually on level with the public schools?’”
He believes the Hope Scholarship can help families choose the school that best meets their needs, but not at the expense of public education.
He said, “I feel like there’s areas we could cut to fund teaching and education better because it is a part of West Virginia’s constitution that we have a free education.”
Wilkinson will be attending West Virginia University in the fall to study social studies education with the plan to become a public school teacher.
Looking for diversity and new ideas
Walking the halls of George Washington High School, Kamryn Corbin stands out. Growing up in West Virginia has meant growing up in a predominantly white state, where teachers and fellow students do not look like her.
“There’s just not enough diversity here, there’s not enough new ideas,” Corbin said.
Inside public schools, she thinks students have too much access to phones, which distracts them from learning and causes disruptions. Corbin completed a year of school online after being bullied in middle school.
But despite the challenges of public school, Corbin prefers it over home schooling, which she found isolating. She believes students would achieve more if there were spaces outside of public schools where they could socialize. Without them, she believes nothing will change.
“We need hangout spots and places where we can come together,” Corbin said.
The exchange of ideas is important to Corbin, who would like to see teachers embrace strategies for teaching beyond lectures.
“The point is for us (to be) in school to learn, not for y’all to just tell us stuff, and we’re expected to remember it,” she said.
She remembers talking to her peers in school and watching friends fall down the rabbit hole of addiction. Corbin would like to see schools provide programming for students that emphasizes the perils of substance abuse.
“There’s a lot of poverty. There’s a lot of just drug use,” she said. “And if I’m going to have kids, I do not want my kids here.”
Focusing on life skills
McKenna Boone spends much of her time quilting with her grandmother and mom. Sewing patches of fabric together to create something new is a pastime she enjoys. She wishes she had classes that taught basic life skills in school, like the one she does in the comfort of her own home.
“There’s nothing like that in middle school or high school,” Boone said.
The recent North Marion High School graduate said she sees many fellow students who struggle to do essential tasks.
“Some people don’t even know how to cook or take care of themselves because sometimes their parents just aren’t there, ” Boone said.
The Marion County Technical Center offers culinary classes and an array of other specialized courses. But she said the technical center is on a different schedule, so students who take classes at the tech center end up taking fewer electives at the high school.
“The interesting thing about the tech center is that it takes away (electives),” Boone said.
Students at the high school have to choose between academic subjects and hands-on learning. Despite the academic rigor of her alma mater, Boone believes that having the option to take Spanish and a cooking class, rather than choose between the two, would benefit the students after graduation.
She chose to pursue more AP and honors courses instead of taking classes at the technical school. This left her to pursue life skills such as sewing and quilt-making as hobbies.
But, she said, making the life skills essential to the core curriculum could help students in situations where they aren’t learning them at home.
North Marion is already trying to pursue some of these challenges. They implemented a financial literacy program to teach students to do their taxes, she said. Boone will be attending Fairmont State University in the fall to study national security and intelligence. She hopes to work for the FBI.
Pursuing career and technical options
Standing in the crowded hallway of Martinsburg South Middle School between his classes, Spencer Faircloth knew he needed a different path. He was overwhelmed by the transition from elementary school, when he was suddenly surrounded by over 750 students.
“I moved around a lot, and I wanted to go into homeschooling around the sixth grade,” Faircloth said. “But I drifted off course a bit.”
His parents were separated, and he said he didn’t get emotional support at school. By his sophomore year, he had completely dropped out.
When Faircloth turned 18 in 2023, he decided to get his GED from the Adult Learning Center in Berkeley County. In 2025, he enrolled in Blue Ridge Community Technical College for an associate degree in political science.
He said that traditional schooling wasn’t his cup of tea, but technical school helped him thrive. He believes that more people should know about career and technical education programs and have the opportunity to attend.
He plans to finish his associate degree before moving to West Virginia University to get a degree in law. Faircloth said he wants to serve in public office.
“I’ve always been really interested in politics and government since I was a kid,” he said. “I’ve always dreamed of running for office in West Virginia, starting off at the local level and up to the state.”
As a state representative, he wants to improve economic opportunities for young West Virginians to stay here. He also believes the more businesses and economic success communities get, the more students, like himself, will be willing to stay in the state.
Faircloth said, “You don’t want to pour money and educate your population, just to (have them) leave for a better-paying job out of state.”