According to WV News, the ACLU of West Virginia filed a 52-page petition for a writ of mandamus with the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals on September 25, 2026, seeking an order that state officials overhaul the school aid funding formula. The petition, filed on behalf of a sixth grader in Lincoln County and that student's parent, argues the formula, unchanged since a 1982 court order, violates the state constitution's guarantee of a thorough and efficient education and its equal protection clauses. WV News reports the named respondents include the House speaker, Senate president, state auditor, tax commissioner, treasurer, the state Department of Education, the state Board of Education, the School Building Authority, the state superintendent, and Lincoln County officials.
The ACLU-WV sent a 30-day notice of intent to sue on August 17, 2026, as required by West Virginia Code, alleging the underfunding violates Article XII, Section 1 and Article III, Sections 10 and 17 of the state constitution, according to the organization's press release. The petition documents that in 2022-23, counties with the highest child poverty rates received less in state and local funding than counties with the lowest child poverty rates, as WV Public Broadcasting reported. It also argues that a levy rule meant to equalize funding widens the gap, with the per-pupil spending gap between wealthy and poor counties now more than three times larger than when a similar disparity was declared unconstitutional.
A 40-year-old precedent
The lawsuit invokes West Virginia's own school funding lineage. In Pauley v. Kelly, filed in 1975 by Lincoln County students, the state Supreme Court of Appeals established that a thorough and efficient education is a fundamental constitutional right. The 1982 Recht decision that followed documented how Lincoln County's schools fell short and directed the state to fix the funding system. The ACLU of West Virginia argues that more than 40 years later, Lincoln County students receive a worse education across many metrics than when the system was previously found unconstitutional.
What the RAND study found
A RAND Corporation study commissioned by the House of Delegates for $114,000 and published January 30, 2026, found that West Virginia's formula provides no additional resources for low-income students, limited special education supplemental grants, and just $96,000 statewide annually for English learners. The study recommended implementing weighted funding for these groups, costing an estimated $37 million to $80 million additional.
RAND compared West Virginia to other states and found that it ranks 34th of 45 in responsiveness of total per-pupil spending to poverty levels; higher-poverty districts receive only 3 percent more than lower-poverty districts. It also ranks 42nd of 45 in distributing funding for special education, where higher-need districts receive 4 percent less.
RAND also found that West Virginia's spending levels are near national averages, but its students face well above-average socioeconomic and academic challenges. The state ranks 8th nationally in child poverty, 5th in special education proportion, and 47th in parent education levels. Based on prior research establishing a causal relationship between school spending and student outcomes, RAND concluded that a sustained increase in spending would very likely improve outcomes and recommended increasing total state aid while implementing weighted funding.
Research on funding weights is mixed. RAND reviewed prior studies and found recommended weights for low-income students ranging from 0.3 to 3.0, for English learners from 0.2 to 2.0, and for special education students from 0.5 to 4.2, depending on methodology and state context. The study noted that this heterogeneity does not offer clear guidance on specific weights for West Virginia and recommended additional state-specific analysis and stakeholder engagement before setting final formula weights.
Legislative response and enrollment decline
The lawsuit arrives as the Legislature considers its own reform. House Bill 5453, introduced February 27, 2026, would replace the current formula with a $6,100 per-student block grant starting in school year 2029-2030, plus supplemental funding of $3,050 per Tier II and $6,100 per Tier III special needs student through a newly created Supplemental School Aid Fund. The current formula would remain through 2028-2029.
Governor Patrick Morrisey's office called the lawsuit premature. Spokesperson Ann Moore said active conversations were taking place between the executive and legislative branches regarding school aid reform, and that a process and policy of this scale are best addressed through an intentional and thorough legislative approach, according to WV News.
State Superintendent Michele Blatt told the House Finance Committee that counties are receiving about half the funds they need to teach special education students, with costs driven by personnel needs such as nurses and one-on-one aides, as Mountain State Spotlight reported.
Enrollment declines are one pressure on the formula, which relies heavily on October enrollment counts to set county budgets. Fall 2025 public school enrollment in West Virginia was 234,957 students across 55 county systems, a 2.52 percent decrease from 241,024 the prior year and a 15.32 percent decrease from 277,452 in fall 2015, according to News and Sentinel. The West Virginia Department of Education's 2024-2025 Education Snapshot confirms the current enrollment figure and notes that 52 of the state's 61 districts experienced enrollment decline.
A WVU Bureau of Business and Economic Research projection found that actual pre-K-12 enrollment fell 15.2 percent between 2015-2016 and 2025-2026, significantly larger than the 8.3 percent decline in the state's school-aged population. The report projects an additional 5.7 to 7.9 percentage-point loss by 2035, with enrollment falling to between 76.9 percent and 79.1 percent of 2015 levels.