In theory, a state’s school system might be so universally excellent that it has no need to consider offering its students school choice.

In reality, no such state exists. And West Virginia doesn’t even come close.

On the National Assessment of Educational Progress, it ranks 46th out of 50 states in 8th grade mathematics performance, its students almost an entire grade level behind their peers across the country. The picture for eighth grade reading is little better; West Virginia students rank 45th.

Recently, lawmakers in the Mountain State offered a ray of hope to some of the most underserved students in state. An education reform proposal would have allowed 1,000 children with special needs to receive education savings accounts.

The state would deposit into each account a portion of what it would have spent on the child in public school. The parents could then use those funds to access learning options that better fit their child’s needs. That could include private school tuition, online learning, special education services and therapies, curricula, and textbooks, among other supports. Unused funds can be rolled over from year-to-year.

Education savings accounts have been a life-saver for students in Arizona, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee and North Carolina. Ashton Fernandez is one such student.

A first-grader, Ashton is noncommunicative. He is on the autism spectrum, but “does understand things and makes himself understood with the correct teachers and settings,” his father explained to RedefinED, an education blog. Florida’s education savings account program, known as the Gardiner Scholarship, has enabled Ashton to access electronic communication technology, receive instruction from a private tutor, and get occupational and speech therapy.

Ashton’s mother, Jennifer, said she couldn’t imagine where her son would be without the savings account, both academically and socially. “I can’t speak enough praise about how Gardiner has impacted our lives in such a huge way,” she said. “The scholarship has been a Godsend. Without this, there’d be no life,” she told RedefinED.

Yet when West Virginia lawmakers proposed education savings account for just 1,000 special needs students, the teachers’ union went on strike. Thousands of students across the state missed class while union members demonstrated against the bill, which also would have raised teacher salaries 5 percent, on top of the 5 percent increase awarded after last year’s strike.

The union also objected to a version of the proposal would have allowed seven charter schools to operate in the state. Charter schools are innovative public schools, but typically they are not unionized. The prospect of allowing seven such schools was enough for the union to throw up picket lines.

Sadly, the union’s “not one inch” tactics succeeded. Legislators withdrew the proposal last week. As a result, West Virginia remains one of just six states that do not allow charter schools, and 1,000 of its most vulnerable children can forget about getting an account that could get them the help they need to deal with their special needs.

Contrast what has just transpired in West Virginia with reforms underway in Florida. Gov. Ron DeSantis is supporting efforts to give an immediate scholarship to the 13,000 students currently on the waitlist. He proposed the same expansion for the state’s education savings account program, and there is momentum for even greater school choice opportunities in the Sunshine State.

The strike in West Virginia couldn’t have made that contrast clearer. West Virginia spends above the national average per-pupil on education, yet has outcomes near the bottom of all states. Families need options.

Yet the union struck against a proposal that included a 5 percent teacher pay raise and an additional $150 million into their health care benefit system — all because it might have allowed 1,000 students to use education savings accounts and made it legal to make seven charter schools available to students.

It’s hard to conclude anything other than this: In West Virginia, special interests have won out over special needs, for now.