New AFP report - 55% school utilization rate across the state. You can't spend your way out of a demographic problem with 60,000 fewer children in schools now than in 2000. The current system was built for a school population the state doesn't have, and may not again. And this problem has nothing to do with the Hope Scholarship. Randolph County lost 552 students between 2017–18 and 2024–25. Of that decline, 417 had already happened before Hope began. That's roughly three-quarters. Blaming Hope doesn't explain a problem that was already there. Hope has ~43 users in Randolph Co. But those buildings still have to be heated, maintained, and repaired. Fewer students doesn't mean those costs just disappear. That money has to come from somewhere. When we're spending it to maintain space we aren't fully using, we can't spend it on something else. Teachers. Tutoring. The things that could actually improve education for the kids in those schools. (WV is still nearly last in ed.) Heating a half-empty building and hiring a reading specialist both cost money. The question is which use does more for students. Keeping a building open isn't free just because we're already doing it. Consolidation is not ideal. No one wants kids on the bus for extended periods of time. It's not good for them. That also doesn't mean a school with a 25% utilization rate should be kept open at any cost. Keeping underused school buildings open ties up money that could better serve the students we have. Our education budget should reflect today's students, not yesterday's population. – at Rand, WV