Department of Education Expenses

See how your tax dollars are spent for education by county.

Individual County Board Of Education Expenses Are Now Live!

In the 2019 First Special Session, the West Virginia Legislature passed House Bill 206, requiring West Virginia Checkbook provide the public with a searchable budget database for each county school board. This data includes current fiscal year expense data in addition to three prior fiscal years of data. Users are able to search the name, address, expenditure amount, funding source, budget program/activity and county of each expenditure.

Click the county below to interact with that county dataset:

How does County Board of Education Checkbook data differ from published County Board of Education Financial Statements?

The financial data presented for county boards of education will not agree to the amounts included on the audited financial statements or the required annual vendor publication in the newspaper due to the manner in which the financial data was pulled from WVEIS, the statewide education accounting system. The financial data presented includes the detailed transactions incurred through the WVEIS payroll ledger and the WVEIS accounts payable ledger, but does not include transactions such as adjusting journal entries or other transactions that are recorded directly into the WVEIS general ledger through other means. As a result, the expenditure totals reported will generally be less than the amounts presented on the audited financial statements. In addition, transactions identified as the employer share of benefits for a specific employee are paid directly to the vendor providing the benefits and not directly to the employee.

**Why do some expenses have asterisks (*) in certain fields?**

Certain information within the transactions is considered to be protected information per the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). West Virginia Checkbook and the West Virginia Department of Education strives to disclose the maximum amount of information possible, however, we have redacted information within certain transactions with asterisks to comply with federal laws regarding student privacy and preserve student / family rights.

County Board of Education Quick Start Guide

Click here to explore the Certified List of County School Personnel

Click here to explore the County Project Financial Report

Click here to explore the Proposed Budget Reported by County

These links take you to the West Virginia Department of Education website. West Virginia Checkbook does not maintain this information and provides it as a convenience.

How does the Department of Education spend money?

The West Virginia Department of Education spends money in one of two ways:

Distributions to Counties - The Department of Education distributes State funds to the 55 individual county school boards through a "School Aid" formula outlined in law.

Administrative Expenses - These expenses are for salaries, benefits, supplies, and equipment pertaining to administering West Virginia Public Schools.

Where does the money for public schools come from?

Most money for public schools comes from sales tax and income taxes. Citizens also pay taxes in the counties where they live to help fund schools.

Education Administrative Expenses

This tile shows West Virginia Department of Education administrative expenses classified by the expense type. Disbursements of State and Federal money to the county school boards is not included in this tile. You can click the tile to explore in more detail.

State and Federal Dollars to County School Boards

This tile shows West Virginia Department of Education distributions to county school boards from State and Federal funding sources. You can click the tile to explore in more detail.

Click here to view West Virginia educational performance metrics

This information is provided by the West Virginia Department of Education; West Virginia Checkbook provides it as a convenience.

How can I view current and historic audit reports for county school boards of education?

The State Auditor's Office maintains the audit reports for the county boards of education. Audit reports can be downloaded or viewed in PDF format. Click here to search for a county board of education audit report.

How does the State allocate money to different county school systems?

The State uses a complex formula called the "School Aid" Formula. Many items are taken into consideration when calculating the amount of aid distributed to county school boards. The mechanics of this formula are set in West Virginia Code Chapter 18, Article 9A (click here to read this code)

The State Department of Education provides additional in-depth resources and data regarding the School Aid Formula on their webpage. Click here to see additional data and click here to see additional resources regarding school assistance distributions.

How much of my tax dollars were contributed to public education in Fiscal Year 2020?

West Virginia Checkbook maintains a taxpayer receipt estimator tool that breaks down your income taxes, showing amounts paid for public safety, education, and other expenses. Click here to visit the taxpayer receipt estimator! You may wish to have your 2018 income tax return handy -- knowing the exact amount of income taxes owed in 2018 will give you the most accurate result. We will update the tax receipt estimator at the end of the 2020 tax season to update the receipt generator for 2019.