NC GOP leaders reach deal on private school vouchers. A ‘blessing’ or ‘irresponsible’?

By T. Keung Hei

Originally Published September 7, 2024

A state budget deal that will help 55,000 families pay for private school tuition this year is drawing both cheers and anger among North Carolinians. Republican legislative leaders announced Friday that they have reached a deal to provide $463 million in additional taxpayer funding to clear the 55,000-student backlog in the Opportunity Scholarship program. It’s welcome news for families who’ve been waiting for months to find out if they’d get any state help to cover private school costs.

“This is great news for working class families who are trying to make ends meet given inflation,” Rachel Brady, a Wake County parent on the voucher waiting list, said in an interview Friday.

But the deal is being blasted as a handout to wealthy families that is coming at the expense of supporting students in public schools. The North Carolina Association of Educators launched a digital ad campaign on Friday to urge lawmakers not to approve the voucher expansion.

“While the majority of North Carolinians believe in the value of our public schools, some state lawmakers are planning to undermine those schools with a massive expansion of taxpayer-funded private school vouchers,” NCAE President Tamika Walker Kelly said in a statement Friday.

“The plan is dangerously irresponsible for the financial health of our state government and threatens the future of local school budgets statewide.”

The General Assembly plans to vote on the bill within the next week. It will likely be vetoed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, but Republicans hold a veto-proof majority in the legislature.

GOP KEEPS ‘PROMISE’ ON VOUCHER FUNDING

Last year, GOP lawmakers created what they called universal school choice by eliminating income eligibility limits for getting a private school voucher. In response, a record total of nearly 72,000 applicants applied in March for the Opportunity Scholarship program.

But legislators adjourned at the end of June without reaching a deal on voucher funding. At the time, House Speaker Tim Moore said the House GOP Caucus wanted the voucher spending to be coupled with higher raises for teachers.

Teacher raises are not part of the deal announced on Friday. Instead the deal includes items such as requiring sheriffs to honor federal immigration detainers and more money to fund public school enrollment increases.

The past few months have seen families on the wait list lobby lawmakers. Some parents went to Moore’s office on July 31 after rallying outside the Legislative Building.

“Families and students let their voices be heard, and the legislature is now poised to make good on a promise to expand the scholarship programs and send another clear message that in North Carolina we are committed to funding students over systems,” Mike Long, president for Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina, said in a statement Friday.

VOUCHER DEAL A ‘BLESSING’ FOR FAMILIES

Under the deal, any Opportunity Scholarship applicants who are attending a private school by Oct. 1 will be funded. The funding would be retroactive to the beginning of this school year so families would be eligible for tuition reimbursement from their school.

What’s unclear is how many of the 55,000 students on the waitlist still plan to use their new voucher.

“If they pass it, it will be a blessing,” said Kathy Whitehill, a parent from Charlotte, in an interview Friday. “But it’s sad for the families who had to financially drop out because they couldn’t afford it.”

Whitehill picked up a second job to help pay for her daughter’s tuition when legislators failed to reach a deal in June.

“I’m shocked they’re bringing it forward because I had lost faith,” Whitehill said.

Several of Rachel Brady’s friends also dropped their plans to attend a private school when no deal was reached in June. But Brady, the Wake County parent who organized he July 31 rally outside the Legislative Building, said she scraped by to cover private school costs this semester.

“This puts parents in the driver’s seat to make the choice that meets their kid’s needs,” Brady said.

‘VOUCHERS FOR THE WEALTHIEST NORTH CAROLINIANS’

Parents like Brady and Whitehill would have qualified for a voucher back when the program had income limits. But 70% of the families on the waiting list made too much money to have qualified in previous years.

The wealthiest North Carolina families who applied for an Opportunity Scholarship this year would get at least $3,360 per child under the deal reached by GOP lawmakers.

“They’re coming back to take hundreds of millions of taxpayer money out of the public schools to give it to private school vouchers for the wealthiest North Carolinians,” Gov. Roy Cooper and other Democratic leaders said at a news conference Thursday. “This is devastating for education across the board and we have evidence from other states to prove it.”

One of the changes lawmakers made to the program was eliminating the requirement that older students had to have previously attended a public school to get an Opportunity Scholarship. It’s uncertain how many of the students on the waitlist were attending private schools before this school year.

“They mostly benefit people who already have children in private school and many of these private schools are simply raising tuition in anticipation of the vouchers,” Cooper said.