NC Republicans push for major funding increase for school voucher program
RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – A state Senate committee approved a bill Wednesday that would add another $248 million in spending on North Carolina’s school voucher program for next school year after a surge in applications.
The current budget already puts about $191 million into the program for this school year. The bill also commits about $215 million in additional spending on the program every year after that. In the 2032-33 school year, there will be $825 million budgeted for the Opportunity Scholarship program.
In the budget, the Republican-controlled legislature passed last year, every family is now eligible for the program regardless of how much money they make. The vouchers range from $7,468 for families at the lower end of the income scale to $3,360. Families who already send their children to private school are now eligible as well.
The state received about 72,000 applications. The NC State Education Assistance Authority has already notified families in the first income tier that they’ve qualified to receive funding. Nearly 2,300 students in the second income tier also will receive awards, but there remain nearly 55,000 applicants on the waiting list.
“I think that everyone is interested in clearing the waitlist, so hopeful that (the House will) pick up the bill when we send it over,” said Sen. Mike Lee (R-New Hanover).
Gov. Roy Cooper (D) says the program lacks accountability and will subsidize wealthy families who already send their kids to private schools.
In his budget proposal earlier this month, he called for a moratorium on the program until public schools are “fully funded” in line with the Leandro decision. He also wants public school teachers to receive an average raise of 8.5 percent.
“It is wrong to take taxpayer money from the public schools and send it to the private schools, particularly with no accountability,” Cooper said Wednesday. “I think people would rather pay public school teachers and invest in public schools than take taxpayer money from the public schools and give it to unaccountable private schools.”
Sen. Lee said Cooper’s frequent public criticism of the Opportunity Scholarship program might have raised awareness of it and helped fuel the increase in applications this year.
“The governor went around the state telling everybody about Opportunity Scholarships, I mean everybody, so that people came to me on the street that I’d never met before and said, I just heard the governor,” said Lee.
Sen. Natasha Marcus (D-Mecklenburg) pressed Lee about the issue, asking, “Why is this your urgent priority to provide welfare for the wealthiest families?”
Lee responded to that citing a hypothetical example of a family with two incomes making $115,000. That’s the maximum income for a family of four to fall into the second income tier.
“For those parents, I don’t think it’s giving money to the wealthy, number one,” Lee responded. “But, the urgency of all of this is really these families have to make decisions.”
Republican legislative leaders say they aim to pass the bill soon rather than wait until later in the session to incorporate the changes into the larger budget bill.
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