From the front page of yesterday’s Charleston Gazette-Mail:

W.Va. board OKs $5M for Ohio Catholic school, conservative agenda

The story, by G-M reporter Mike Tony, documents the awarding of $5 million of WV taxpayer money to the College of Steubenville’s College of St. Joseph the Worker:

West Virginia taxpayer money is being used to support a newly launched out-of-state Catholic school and its plans to push abortion restrictions and other right-wing policies.

The support totaling $5 million is coming from a fund usually tapped for water and wastewater infrastructure improvements — without evidence of approval from a Cabinet secretary, as required by state law.

The West Virginia Water Development Authority on Oct. 10 approved a grant of up to $5 million through the state’s Economic Enhancement Grant program for the College of St. Joseph the Worker, a Steubenville, Ohio-based Catholic school whose inaugural class began lessons this fall.

It gets worse:

The $5 million grant to the college was $3.74 million more than the next-largest Water Development Authority grant among 28 disbursed during fiscal year 2025, according to authority records. The college was the only recipient out of 28 not based in West Virginia, per authority records. Most recipients were towns, cities and public service districts getting support for water and wastewater improvement projects.

Here is the link to Tony’s article:

WV officials approved a $5 million grant for an out-of-state Catholic school and its plans to push anti-abortion and other political measures, taking taxpayer dollars typically used for water and wastewater projects and potentially violating state law: https://t.co/p3nVDuhM9X

— Mike Tony (@Mike__Tony) December 28, 2024

(Note: Tony’s excellent article is behind a paywall. Hopefully, the G-M will soon make it available. Additionally, Ogden Newspaper’s political reporter, Steven Allen Adams, has this similar article up on the Wheeling Intelligencer news site. I assume it will be in Monday’s edition.)

The two articles raise all kinds of questions. Here are just a few that quickly came to mind:

• Tony reported that the college will use $1 million of the money from the Water Development Authority to push abortion and immigration restrictions along with other right-wing policies. How is this legal? And what does it have to do with job training? Or water?

• Both Tony and Adams note that the appropriate law required the approval of cabinet heads. How did this go through without them? And will anyone ask or press the point?

• Adams reports that the key legislative player was Hancock County delegate Patrick McGeehan who began working on this in September. That was three months ago; why are we just now hearing about this? And if this is such a good idea, why the secrecy with state money involved?

• The obvious choice for starting a new worker training program in the northern panhandle would be West Virginia Northern Community College, which has campuses in Weirton and Wheeling. Was this discussed with WVNCC? I hope someone does some follow-up, but my hunch is that it wasn’t.

Okay, let me see if I got this right: One of our far-right legislators has worked to give millions of West Virginia tax dollars to an out-of-state, far-right Christian college when there is an in-state, local, publicly supported community college nearby that could do the same job without the political and religious baggage. This action was not openly discussed, nor does it appear that the appropriate law was followed. Sadly, democratic institutions depend upon both and I think it is clear: like the national party, the WV Trump Party now does as it pleases – democratic niceties be damned.

Finally, I would note a small candle in the increasing darkness: it was good to see two state reporters covering this issue. Hopefully, there will be follow-up.