North Carolina state lawmakers came to an agreement on funding to clear the state’s private school voucher waiting list.
Republicans in the state House and Senate brokered the deal on Sept. 6, allocating hundreds of millions of dollars for a supplemental spending proposal directed at the school voucher program.
The Opportunity Scholarship Program in the state will receive an additional $463 million for this school year and the following school year, according to the plan. This is primarily for the purpose of clearing its waiting list, as there has been a rise in applications since the General Assembly lifted income limitations to qualify for the program last year.
Initially, there was insufficient funding to cover everyone, which resulted in approximately 55,000 children being placed on the waitlist.
North Carolina Democrats, including Gov. Roy Cooper, have been staunchly against the expansion. The day before the bill was agreed upon by the North Carolina General Assembly, Cooper and Democrat leaders held a press conference, pushing back against what they called a “disastrous plan” to spend taxpayer money on private school vouchers.
“This would be disastrous for our public schools and the future of our state. They should invest in public education instead so we can give teachers an overdue pay raise.”
The Democrats’ statement said that North Carolina public schools serve roughly 84 percent of students and that the state ranks near the bottom of all states in K-12 funding. Additionally, North Carolina has fallen to 38th in the country for teacher pay.
The General Assembly eliminated income limits for the vouchers last year, thereby enabling all families to be eligible for funding and send their children to a private institution. Scholarships were included in the new regulations, with the highest-income families receiving $3,360 per child and lower-income families receiving $7,468 per child.
Sloan Rachmuth, president of the North Carolina advocacy group Education First Alliance, offered her support for the General Assembly’s move in an emailed statement to The Epoch Times, highlighting some of the problems this funding could solve.
“I applaud North Carolina Republicans for finally funding Opportunity Scholarships for families stuck in failing school districts,” she said. “Our state has over 600 failing public schools, with only 25 percent of eighth graders at grade level for reading, math, and science. Forcing low-income families to accept educational failure is cruel, and I’m glad lawmakers have solved the problem with these scholarships.”
Next week, the North Carolina General Assembly will meet again for a vote that will send the measure to Cooper. Republican supermajorities in the Legislature have the power to override the governor’s anticipated veto of the bill.
The revised plan allocates additional funds to meet demand until the early 2030s and could allow families on the waiting list to get back payments for private school expenses for the start of the 2024–2025 school year.
The provision of private school scholarships to children with disabilities would entail the allocation of approximately $25 million in recurrent funds, while approximately $160 million would address the increase in enrollment at community colleges and K-12 public institutions.
The Epoch Times has reached out to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction for comment.
