By Mike Tony, Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The shadow of a potential $465 million clawback of COVID relief funding from the U.S. Department of Education hung over West Virginia’s 2024 legislative regular session.
But Department of Education officials expressed optimism in an interview with the Gazette-Mail on Friday that such a clawback won’t happen.
“Recovery of funds would be an ultimate last resort, and I certainly don’t foresee that happening in this case,” they said. “You never know, but we’ve worked with West Virginia to resolve it [in past years]. So I don’t see why we wouldn’t be able to reach a resolution.”
The officials, who were not authorized to speak as individuals and were speaking on background, were alluding to West Virginia being in this situation before.
West Virginia is again seeking a waiver from the Department of Education’s Maintenance of Effort requirements that mandate states maintain support for elementary, secondary and higher education relative to their overall spending to qualify for COVID relief funding.
The American Rescue Plan Act allows the Education Department to grant a waiver of those requirements “for the purpose of relieving fiscal burdens incurred by States in preventing, preparing for, and responding to the coronavirus.”