CHARLESTON — A Lincoln County student has asked the state Supreme Court to declare West Virginia’s public school funding system unconstitutional.
The petition, filed September 25, argues the current reliance on local property wealth leaves poorer counties without enough money to provide the education guaranteed by the state Constitution.
It seeks a writ of mandamus directing the Legislature and state education officials to revise the school aid formula and meet their constitutional obligation to provide a “thorough and efficient” system of free schools.
The filing names House Speaker Roger Hanshaw (R-Clay), Senate President Randy Smith (R-Preston), Treasurer Larry Pack, Auditor Mark Hunt, Tax Commissioner Matthew Irby, the state Department of Education, the state Board of Education, the School Building Authority, State Superintendent Michele Blatt, Lincoln County school officials and other state and county officials.
The lawsuit was brought on behalf of M.D., a sixth grader in Lincoln County Schools, and the student’s parent, Lakin Patten. It follows an August 17 notice in which the American Civil Liberties Union—WV said it intended to challenge the state’s school-funding system.
ACLU-WV Legal Director Aubrey Sparks said the current formula repeats problems that state courts identified decades ago.
“More than 40 years later, the same problems exist in schools across the state and particularly in Lincoln County,” Sparks said in a statement. “In many respects, the school funding formula is yielding results that are even less fair, and raise more constitutional concerns, than the system previously declared unconstitutional.”
The group’s petition traces the case to Pauley v. Kelly, a 1975 lawsuit brought by Lincoln County families. The state Supreme Court held that a thorough and efficient education is a fundamental constitutional right. A later court ruling in the Recht case found the state’s school system “woefully inadequate” and concluded that funding disparities tied to county property wealth violated the Constitution.
The new petition alleges the present formula still favors wealthier counties, particularly through its treatment of county school levies. State law counts 85% of a county’s regular levy collections toward that county’s local share of education costs, while the remaining 15% remains available to the county in addition to state aid, according to the ACLU-WV.
The organization said that structure gives a larger financial advantage to counties with more property wealth per student.
In the 2022-23 school year, Tyler County raised $10,773 per student through its regular levy, compared with $939 per student in Lincoln County, the ACLU-WV said. The 10 counties with the highest property wealth per student had $17,960 per student in combined state and local funding, compared with $12,422 in the 10 poorest counties, according to the group.
The petition also challenges the way West Virginia reports school spending.
The ACLU-WV said the state included $296 million in payments toward unfunded Teachers Retirement System liabilities in its 2022-23 per-pupil spending figures, despite the money being used to pay retirement debt rather than support classroom operations.
Removing those pension debt payments would drop West Virginia from 31st to 39th nationally in total per-pupil spending, according to the group’s analysis.
The suit further argues that funding disparities, rather than enrollment losses or excess building space, help explain recent school consolidations. West Virginia has closed more than 40 schools since 2017, the ACLU-WV said. Counties that closed schools lost students at rates similar to counties that did not close schools but had less levy revenue per student, the organization said.
Lincoln County, which the petition describes as receiving the least funding per pupil under the state school-aid formula, illustrates the alleged consequences, the filing says. The ACLU-WV said about 70% of Lincoln County students were below proficiency in math and argued that the existing formula provides fewer staff positions than an earlier funding approach that courts found constitutionally deficient.
“There’s no question under the West Virginia Constitution that students have a right to an education,” Sparks said. “There’s no question that the State has a duty to provide it.”
ACLU-WV Executive Director Eli Baumwell called the case among the organization’s most consequential in the past decade, saying the Legislature’s funding decisions could have lasting effects on students and communities.
The filing asks the court to determine whether educational conditions in Lincoln County meet constitutional standards and whether the statewide funding formula complies with equal-protection requirements.
