State asks WV Supreme Court to delay school funding lawsuit until April as lawmakers eye formula overhaul

West Virginia's long-running school funding fight just took a new turn. State leaders are asking the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals to hold off until next spring on a lawsuit that says our public schools aren't getting the money they need, arguing that lawmakers are already working on a fix.

A new filing from the West Virginia Attorney General's Office, made on behalf of leaders in both the legislative and executive branches, asks the justices to delay the case until April. That would give the Legislature its full 60-day regular session, which begins Jan. 13, 2027, to take a crack at rewriting the formula that decides how much state money each county school system gets.

"Petitioner asks this Court to order the political branches to rewrite West Virginia's school aid formula. But the political branches are already engaged in discussions," the filing states. It notes that the state Department of Education has delivered an overhaul of the formula to the governor and legislative leadership, and that the Joint Standing Committee on Education plans to hear from the department on Nov. 9.

What the lawsuit is about

The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia filed the case in September on behalf of a Lincoln County sixth grader and the student's parent. It asks the state's highest court to require lawmakers to correct the funding formula, arguing the state is falling short of the West Virginia Constitution's promise of a "thorough and efficient" system of free schools.

At the heart of the dispute is the state's seven-step school aid formula, which hasn't been updated in years and leans heavily on student headcount. As West Virginia's population shrinks, that means less money for many counties, even as costs like special education keep climbing. Districts have to meet the needs of students with disabilities under state and federal law whether the dollars are there or not.

Schools closing across the state

The stakes are real for a lot of hometowns. State education officials have said eight to 20 schools face closure or consolidation in the next year, on top of the 20 closures or consolidations the West Virginia Department of Education approved last year. For small communities, the local school is often the heart of the place, so every one of those decisions hits close to home.

Gov. Patrick Morrisey has said the issue will be front and center when lawmakers return. "School aid issues and education issues will dominate the next legislative session," the governor said at an Oct. 28 press conference.

The price tag question

Money has been the sticking point before. Lawmakers wrapped up the 2026 regular session in March without changing the formula, even though several bills were introduced to do it. Many of those proposals carried price tags of $100 million to $200 million or more, and a House bill to update the formula would have cost about $214 million.

The state school board has since put forward its own plan to restructure the formula to deal with declining enrollment and the needs of special education, high-poverty areas and rural schools. The board hasn't released a total cost, but the special education piece alone would run about $190 million. For context, lawmakers set aside around $2.4 billion for public education in the fiscal year 2027 budget.

Now it's up to the Supreme Court to decide whether to give the Legislature that runway. Either way, how West Virginia pays for its schools is shaping up to be one of the biggest stories of the coming year, and one that touches just about every family from the Panhandles to the southern coalfields.