CHARLESTON – West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey wasted no time in appealing the Hope Scholarship Act question to the state Supreme Court.
Morrisey’s office filed a motion late August 3 seeking a stay pending appeal of the preliminary and injunctive relief granted against the act, which would provide money for educational expenses, including tuition and fees at participating private schools and other extracurricular activities.
Late on August 2, the state’s Intermediate Court of Appeals denied a stay of the injunction.
“This is a good law and I will not let this minor setback derail my office in fighting for Hope Scholarship’s constitutionality,” Morrisey said. “This delay of funds will only hurt the thousands of families who were set to receive money from the act.
“This is about protecting the fundamental freedom of parents to choose the best education for their children.”
The state Legislature passed and Gov. Jim Justice signed the Hope Scholarship Act into law in 2021. It provides money for students leaving the public schools system—the scholarship allows families to use the funding for a variety of expenses, including tuition and fees at participating private schools and other extracurricular activities.
Morrisey’s office filed its appeal with the ICA last week, saying Kanawha Circuit Court Judge Joanna Tabit’s “injunction will irreparably injure the public, including more than 3,000 students already approved for scholarships.”
Last month, Tabit enjoined the state from implementing the program, saying it, among other things, violates a provision of the state Constitution that requires the state to provide a thorough and efficient system of free public schools supervised by the state Board of Education. She also said the act exceeds that and authorizes a separate system of education that is funded by taxpayer money but governed by a separate board.
Morrisey has said the act would “give parents the right to choose the education they see fit for their children.”
In her July 22 order, Tabit wrote that because private schools cost more than the Hope Scholarship amounts and there are many other expenses outside of tuition that families must cover, vouchers can only be used by families with the resources to pay the additional private school tuition and costs.
"As a result, the public schools will have fewer funds to educate a higher proportion of students with the most significant needs — including students from low-income families and students with disabilities — who are among the most expensive to educate," Tabit wrote.
The Hope Scholarship program would provide money to students who left the public school system and give them $4,200 each to go toward private school tuition or to be used for other school purposes.
The state education department has said the money incentivized people to leave public schools, which would reduce school funding, teachers and staff.
West Virginia Intermediate Court of Appeals case number 22-ICA-1 (Kanawha Circuit Court case numbers 22-P-24 and 22-P-26)
