Reporter Ryan Quinn, in today’s Charleston Gazette-Mail, explains:

West Virginia’s Board of Education president and the state schools superintendent are asking a judge to block the state’s upcoming nonpublic school vouchers program.

It’s an exceedingly rare public break between the state’s top public education officials and dominant Republican legislative leaders, who passed the nation’s broadest school choice law last year.

In January, when Mountain State public school parents sued Republican Gov. Jim Justice, Republican state Treasurer Riley Moore and the leaders of the Republican legislative supermajorities, they also named state school board President Miller Hall and Superintendent Clayton Burch as defendants. The case was filed in Kanawha Circuit Court.

But after the parents filed a motion asking a judge to stop the vouchers program, called the Hope Scholarship, from taking effect this fall, Hall and Burch filed a motion supporting these parents — and supporting preserving public education funding — instead of supporting the other state leaders.

Note -- WV Metro News’ also covered the story:

#WVgov board and superintendent say Hope Scholarship defies state Constitutionhttps://t.co/6l95uGQcQr

— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) June 24, 2022

How far is the Republican legislature willing to go to gut WV public education? In doing some research on the state’s new voucher system, I came across this from WV Delegate Kayla Young (D - Charleston):

This week I learned that WV’s new Hope Scholarship (school voucher) can be used out of state if the school is on the approved list. Our money for public education going straight out of state.

— Kayla Young (@kaylayoungforwv) June 15, 2022

Are these alternatives to public education the best way to improve education in West Virginia? Is the Hope Scholarship a cost-effective use of the state money? Does any Republican care?