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West Virginia public charter schools seeking Hope Scholarship dollars

Some charters are struggling despite increased enrollment

(Capitol Notes - Graphic Illustration/MetroCreative)

CHARLESTON — Some public charter schools in West Virginia are now in their second year, but at least one is nearly $2 million in the red.

State charter school officials are hoping a legal opinion could allow charters to receive funding through the Hope Scholarship, but state education officials are against that.

The West Virginia Professional Charter School Board met Thursday morning for a meeting, receiving reports on enrollment, new charter school applicants, and possible federal and state funding streams for the three brick-and-mortar schools and two statewide virtual public charter schools.

One possible funding stream for public charter schools could be the Hope Scholarship educational saving account and voucher program. The Hope Scholarship gives parents the option to use a portion, $4,300, of their per-pupil expenditure from the state School Aid Formula for educational expenses, such as private or religious school tuition, home school, tutoring, learning aids and other acceptable expenses.

While Hope Scholarship monies could not be used by parents for public charter school tuition, Hope monies could be used to pay for specific educational services only offered by the public charters according to a legal opinion from the State Treasurer’s Office which oversees the Hope Scholarship program.

“According to the State Treasurer’s general counsel … charter schools are indeed permitted to serve as education service providers and the Hope Scholarship Board and staff are prepared to allow charter schools to become service providers and charge fees to Hope families as long as the charter schools comply with all of the applicable requirements that are under that act,” James Paul, executive director of the Charter School Board, said.

Even though charter schools are considered public schools, Paul said the Hope Scholarship Board will treat public charter schools the same way they would count public schools that would choose to become educational service providers and participate in the Hope program. Paul said the PCSB should provide guidance to public charter schools about the opportunities to be educational service providers under Hope.

However, the interpretation of the Hope Scholarship law differs from an interpretation offered a few months ago by the state Department of Education.

According to Paul, the general counsel for the Department of Education believes state law would need to be changed to allow public charter schools to participate in the Hope Scholarship program. State Code does not allow public charter schools to charge tuition or fees, while the Hope Scholarship law does allow county boards of education to charge tuition to Hope Scholarship students who participate in specific programs in public schools. It is possible an update to the charter school law could be offered in the 2024 legislative session to clear up any confusion.

“On the question of treating charter schools the same as public schools, I think that is exactly the right interpretation,” said charter board Chairman Adam Kissel. “We feel confident that any charter school can let a Hope Scholarship student take a class or do any other thing a regular public school can let a student do on Hope Scholarship money and charge a fee for that educational service. I’m glad that we came to that resolution.”

The official statewide student enrollment numbers have not been released, but according to preliminary enrollment numbers, about 2,200 students are enrolled in the state’s public charter school pilot program, a more-than-76% increase from 1,248 students in the fall of 2022. Most of the increase came from the two statewide virtual public charter schools: Virtual Preparatory Academy of West Virginia, and the West Virginia Virtual Academy.

The Workforce Initiative for Nurses Academy in Charleston is the newest public charter school, opening earlier this fall. The West Virginia Academy in Morgantown and the Eastern Panhandle Preparatory Academy in Kearneysville opened last year. The M.E.C.C.A. Business Learning Institute and the Nitro Preparatory Academy, both approved by the Charter School Board, PCSBare slated to open in the fall of 2024.

The Eastern Panhandle Preparatory Academy already is having money woes. Last year, the school had a deficit of $1.8 million. This year, the deficit is $1.1 million, for a combined deficit of $2.9 million. Eastern Panhandle Preparatory Academy is managed by education service provider ACCEL, which manages 92 schools across the country.

Officials with ACCEL told the Charter School Board Thursday that start-up costs associated with the school combined with assumptions that didn’t come to pass have compounded the deficit. ACCEL estimated a fall enrollment of 397 Eastern Panhandle Preparatory Academy, but as of Monday enrollment was around 375.

ACCEL assumed that healthcare and retirement costs for staff at Eastern Panhandle Preparatory Academy would be absorbed by the county school system. But since staff at the school are employees of ACCEL, they are not eligible for health insurance through the Public Employees Insurance Agency and retirement benefits through the Teachers Retirement System.

Also, there were issues with understanding how the funding formula works for public charter schools. Eastern Panhandle Preparatory Academy only received the state portion of the funding base, or roughly 70% of the total allowance.

“We went into this thinking that the per-pupil revenue would be almost twice as much as it is,” said Maria Szalay, chief operating officer for ACCEL. “A lot of this is now in the context of getting about half the revenue. And when we’re talking about expense overruns, it’s really that we didn’t get enough funding to do what we needed to do.”

An option for federal grants to public charter schools may be available, however. Paul announced Thursday that the Charter School Board’s application for federal funding through the U.S. Department of Education’s Expanding Opportunity Through Quality Charter Schools program was accepted. The program awarded the board $12.3 million for five years, with $3.1 million available in year one.

Paul said he hopes to use some of the funding to double the number of public charter schools in the state. The Charter School Board will vote on two new public charter school applicants at the end of November. The state public charter school pilot program allows for the approval of up to 10 charter schools every three years.

“I think this has a lot of potential to help students in West Virginia,” Paul said.

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com.

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