To the Editor,

The financial crisis facing Hancock County Schools did not happen overnight. It is the predictable result of rising costs, shrinking revenues, and hard decisions delayed.

No teacher/employee thought the revenue that pays them would run out. I do not believe the Board of Education intended to pay people from a source that would run out. Hiring and spending decisions were made with good intentions — but produced bad results.

Taxpayers assume that oversight boards fully understand the financial implications of their decisions. Some do, but some do not. The role of a Board Member is to stabilize and guide the organization.

Budgets rarely collapse suddenly. They erode when intention replaces understanding, discipline, and hard decisions. The deep irony of a school system that is unable to pay teachers reflects a broader issue: we are not teaching the financial skills required to protect resources that we rely on for public services. We have taught that a cause justifies the cost and that is a destabilizing principle, not a financial strategy.

We will react to this problem and update curriculum (I hope), but what about the graduates that did not receive financial guidance? How many financially illiterate academics have we produced? If we do not teach financial responsibility, we should not be surprised when financial collapse follows.

The West Virginia Board of Education should make financial literacy a true graduation requirement. Financial literacy is not just about math — it is about discipline, priorities, and having a strategy to get where you want to go. Financial literacy is chess not checkers.

Eron Chek

Weirton