West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy

09/08/2026

Has anyone ever tried to tell you the Hope Scholarship is not a voucher?

The Hope Scholarship in West Virginia uses public taxpayer dollars for private and other non-public educational expenses. And now that the program is universal, its cost continues to grow.

We can debate whether public dollars should be used this way. But we should be honest about what the program is.

We call the Hope Scholarship a voucher because that's what it is--an instrument for directing taxpayer dollars away from public schools and toward private vendors.

09/07/2026

Happy Labor Day to all workers, including the paid and unpaid caregivers who make all other work possible. Our labor powers the economy!

Each year, Labor Day celebrates the contributions and achievements of workers, whose labor, caregiving and consumer spending are the essential forces behind our economy. It is workers who build our

09/04/2026

Each year, Labor Day celebrates the contributions and achievements of workers, whose labor, caregiving, and consumer spending are the essential forces behind our economy. It is workers who build our roads and bridges; drive trucks and buses; care for our loved ones, young and old; grow, cook and serve our food; and spend their hard-earned money right here in our communities, sustaining local businesses.

Despite the value workers bring to our economy, most of us don't feel the economic security that should come with a hard day's work.

This Labor Day we can honor the contributions of workers by committing to policies that put regular, working people first.

Each year, Labor Day celebrates the contributions and achievements of workers, whose labor, caregiving and consumer spending are the essential forces behind our economy. It is workers who build our

09/03/2026

4,000 fewer children in West Virginia have SNAP since the passage of The One Big Beautiful Bill.

“Presumably children were never intended to be impacted by this law, the data that we’re seeing in West Virginia and across the country is clear that children are losing SNAP as a result of the implementation and the new restrictions to SNAP in this law,” said Kelly Allen, executive director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy.

About 4,000 fewer West Virginia children have federal food assistance benefits as of May, according to the Department of Human Services.

09/02/2026

Over the past few weeks, we’ve shared a vision where every West Virginian has the opportunity to thrive.

A state that invests in families and children.
A state that keeps neighborhood schools open and builds and maintains the infrastructure our communities depend on.
A state that invests in health care, housing, good jobs, and the conditions that help people thrive.
A state that reduces our reliance on incarceration and invests in communities instead.

Turning this vision into reality requires more than good ideas. It requires choices about who and what we choose to invest in.

West Virginia has the resources to build a stronger future. The question is whether we’re willing to make the choices necessary to put those resources toward the people and communities that make our state home.

That’s the vision behind our Putting People First report, a West Virginia where our shared resources create shared prosperity, not just more for those who already have the most.

This is about more than any one policy.

It’s about what kind of West Virginia we want to build and putting people at the center of that future.

Read the full Putting People First report and lets build a more prosperous, equitable West Virginia:https://wvpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Putting-People-First-Digital.pdf

09/01/2026

As Labor Day approaches, our new blog highlights the labor of West Virginians incarcerated in our state prisons in their own words.

In some ways, work behind bars is similar to work for the rest of us. People were grateful for the chance to ease the financial burden on their families. Others described feeling pride and a sense of purpose. But unlike work in the free world, incarcerated people are denied protections that most of us take for granted.

Read more:

More than a quarter century ago, scholar Angela Davis wrote, “Prisons do not disappear social problems, they disappear human beings.” This “feat of magic” means that most West Virginians have no idea about day-to-day life in prisons. The lack of transparency is baked into the design: facilit...

08/27/2026

Communities in West Virginia and across the country are grappling with the costs versus benefits of data centers locating in their communities. Polling shows that Americans worry data centers are bad for the environment, home energy costs, and quality of life nearby, while they feel more positively about the potential of data centers to bring local jobs and local tax revenue.

But West Virginia provides massive tax breaks to data center developers that could cost West Virginia billions of dollars in tax revenue in upcoming years, wiping out most of the state and local tax benefits.

Read more:

Communities in West Virginia and across the country are grappling with the costs versus benefits of data centers locating in their communities. Polling shows that Americans worry data centers are bad for the environment, home energy costs, and quality of life nearby, while they feel more positively....

08/26/2026

Making life more affordable starts with investing in people and communities. West Virginia families are working hard, but too many are still struggling to afford the basics like housing, health care, child care, food, and the other costs of raising a family.

That is not a failure of families. It’s a sign that our policies aren’t doing enough to support them.

Our Putting People First report lays out a different path to invest in the things families need to thrive.

That means adequately funding child care, creating a refundable child tax credit, investing in affordable housing, protecting Medicaid and CHIP, and strengthening the supports that help families stay together and economically secure.

When we invest in families, we’re not just helping people get by—we’re strengthening our communities and our economy along the way. West Virginia can choose policies that put people first.

Learn more in the full report here: https://tinyurl.com/yjsb4459

08/25/2026

The Hope Scholarship is growing rapidly. But who is it really benefiting?

As the Hope Scholarship enters its fifth year, participation has grown more than 10 times from roughly 2,300 students in the first year to more than 26,000 applicants this year.

The program is on track to cost hundreds of millions of public dollars while public schools across the state are facing closures, staff layoffs, and persistent gaps in special education and student support funding.

Our latest analysis looks at who is participating, where participation is concentrated, and what the data reveals about the program’s quick growth.

The questions lawmakers should be asking are straightforward:
- Who is benefiting from the Hope Scholarship?
- Are there sufficient guardrails to ensure public dollars are being used effectively?
- What are we giving up when we prioritize vouchers over our public schools?

West Virginia can diverge from the path we’re on. We can strengthen our public school funding formula, support special education, and reinvest public dollars in the schools that serve all students.

Public dollars should serve the public good.

Learn more here: https://tinyurl.com/2739zewe

08/24/2026

At the WVCBP, we envision a prosperous West Virginia where everyone has a meaningful opportunity to thrive with equitable access to health care, education, jobs, housing, and safe communities.

Check out our 2025 Annual Report to learn about our work over the last year! https://tinyurl.com/fy32b8as