By Mike Tony, HD Media
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Two numbers will loom over the West Virginia legislative session that resumes Wednesday: 37 and 47.
New Gov. Patrick Morrisey is West Virginia’s 37th governor.
West Virginia ranked 47th nationally in economic well-being in a 2024 assessment of state trends in child welfare from a prominent national philanthropic foundation.
The assessment from the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation, a longtime authoritative source on child poverty and welfare data, found West Virginia’s percentage of children in poverty rose from 20% in 2019 to 25% in 2022, even as it fell by one percentage point to 16%.
But 37 faces the task of addressing 47 with a third, much larger number looming: 400 million.
