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Senate committee advances broad overhaul of higher education grants and loan-repayment programs

West Virginia Senate Finance Committee · March 9, 2026

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Summary

A committee substitute for House Bill 52 12 was reported to the full Senate with a recommendation to pass; the substitute restructures workforce development grants into four subprograms, changes loan-repayment payment routing to federal loan servicers, revises the Promise Scholarship GPA requirement to an overall 3.0 and moves certain eligibility determinations to the Community and Technical College Council.

The Senate Finance Committee voted to report a committee substitute for House Bill 52 12 to the full Senate with the recommendation that it pass. Committee counsel described the measure as a wide-ranging modernization of higher-education financial aid and related grant programs.

Counsel said the measure begins by renaming the workforce development grant and dividing it into four subprograms. It modifies the medical student loan program so that the definition of an approved service-commitment area need not be a shortage area or specialty at the time the loan is issued. The Health Sciences Loan repayment and the mental health provider loan repayment programs would be changed to require payment of award amounts directly to participants' federal student loan servicers; language that previously prohibited license actions for loan arrearage was removed because repayment obligations are shifted to an after-service commitment model.

The bill also makes a single change to the higher education grant program to specify that grants may be awarded only to undergraduate students enrolled full time or part time at an approved institution. Changes to the Future Workforce Grant rename it the Higher Education Adult Part-Time Student Grant Program and change parameters accordingly. Counsel described adjustments to the Promise Scholarship program, replacing a prior structure that required a 3.0 GPA in certain core and elective coursework with a requirement of an overall 3.0 GPA. Finally, the West Virginia Invest Grant program's eligible postsecondary program definition would be changed so that course-of-study determinations come from the Community and Technical College Council rather than the Department of Commerce.

The vice chairman moved to report the committee substitute to the full Senate with a recommendation that it pass; the motion carried by voice vote. Counsel offered to provide more detailed page-by-page changes and noted the chancellor was available to answer questions if members wanted further clarification, though no extended Q&A is recorded in the transcript.