RALEIGH (March 12, 2025) – This is our final planned post to address misinformation about North Carolina’s taxpayer-funded private school vouchers. To access the series of five posts, follow this link.
Here are the facts:
•NC taxpayer money funneled to private school vouchers DOES divert money from local, neighborhood public schools. Every tax dollar that follows a child to a private school leaves a financial gap that is not filled to cover fixed costs. Real per-student state funding is down 3.8% since 2009. North Carolina’s school funding effort (education spending as a share of our state economy) has fallen from 42nd in 2008 to 49th in 2022.
•Private schools that receive NC taxpayer money ARE NOT REQUIRED to have licensed teachers. In fact, some lawmakers are now trying to reduce the quality of teachers at local public schools by eliminating a testing requirement.
•Taxpayer funded private school vouchers WILL HURT RURAL NC COUNTIES. There are not many private schools in NC rural counties, so taxpayer money allocated to vouchers for private schools will benefit large urban counties where the most private schools are located. Eight urban North Carolina counties (8%) are where 44% of the state’s private schools are located. Eleven (11%) counties have no (0%) private schools, and 50 counties (50%) have only 11% of the state’s private schools. Below is a chart depicting the breakdown of all NC private schools by county.
Public Schools First NC created an excellent video that adds insights and provides historical context about the origins of NC taxpayer-funded school vouchers. Here are text from the video and shareable clips for each major point. You can follow this link to view their entire five-minute video.
NC School Vouchers Have A Racially Charged History
North Carolina is spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars each year on vouchers. But what are vouchers and what do they mean for our state?
Vouchers are programs that funnel tax dollars into private schools or directly to families to educate students outside of the public school system.
Vouchers in North Carolina were first signed into law in 1956, just two years after the Supreme Court ruled in Brown vs. Board of Education that schools could not be segregated by race. The vouchers were created to avoid desegregation. They paid private school tuition for students who were assigned to an integrated school against their wishes.
In the late 1960s, the vouchers were declared unconstitutional.
North Carolina’s next voucher program became law in 2013. Families apply directly to the state for vouchers. Then the state pays the amount of the voucher to the private school. Two voucher programs for students with disabilities soon followed and were combined into one program in 2021.
NC Has Ramped Up Spending to $616 Million Tax Dollars on Private School Vouchers
The “Opportunity” Scholarship is North Carolina’s largest voucher program and has been expanded steadily so more families would enroll.
At first, vouchers were limited to low-income families whose children attended a low performing public school. Vouchers paid up to $4,200 tuition at a private school. Over the years, funding for vouchers increased even though there was money left over every year. But instead of shrinking the program because it wasn’t popular, voucher supporters in the legislature decided to spend tax dollars to market the program.
In the 2021 budget, they gave up to half a million dollars each year to market vouchers and help families apply. In 2023, they doubled the marketing budget to $1 million per year. Voucher funding also increased dramatically. What started out as $14.7 million for both voucher programs has skyrocketed to hundreds of millions each year.
In November, the legislature passed a bill to add hundreds of millions more in voucher spending, even though Hurricane Helene had devastated the western part of the state , leaving a desperate need for help. Now, North Carolina will spend $616 million on vouchers in the 2024 / 2025 school year alone and, if the current legislation holds, will be spending nearly a billion dollars on vouchers each year by 2033.
Starting in 2024, there are no longer income limits on who can apply for vouchers. Now even the wealthiest families can get them. And students don’t have to attend public school. Now all students who are already in private school can apply.
Private Schools Receiving NC Taxpayer Money Lack Accountability, Can Discriminate
Private charter schools have no accountability for how the voucher money is spent. In fact, they have virtually no requirements at all.
Private charter schools don’t participate in the state accountability program. They don’t have to follow curriculum standards, hire licensed teachers, provide transportation or school lunches. They don’t have to make financial records public or have staff pass a criminal background check.
Private schools aren’t governed by an elected school board accountable to the public. Private schools can choose which students to accept. Although they are prohibited from discriminating based on race, ethnicity, or national origin, state law doesn’t prevent other forms of discrimination.
Many vouchers go to private, religious schools that only admit students from families that share their religious beliefs. Other private schools may refuse students who are LGBTQ or have disabilities, weak academic records, or come from families they consider not the right fit.
With voucher programs, schools choose the students they want to educate.
When vouchers were first introduced in North Carolina, more than half of the students using them were black and 27% were white. Now only 11% are black and 74% are white. This gap is expected to grow. Vouchers are taking the state back to the 1950s and 1960s.
Millionaires With Children Already In Private Schools Benefit the Most from NC Taxpayer Funded School Vouchers
So who really benefits from vouchers? Based on what’s happened in other states, it’s wealthy families who have never sent their children to public school.
In state after state, data is showing that the majority of voucher users have always attended private schools.
And voucher programs don’t improve student achievement. In fact, data shows that voucher students often perform worse, especially in math. In some studies, the impact of using a voucher was worse for student achievement than the impact of COVID.
In North Carolina, private schools using vouchers don’t give the same tests as public schools. They get to choose which test to give and don’t have to report results to the public. So there’s no way to compare student achievement. Legislators have designed a system that leaves the public in the dark about whether vouchers are helping or hurting student learning.
Don’t let public dollars go to unaccountable, discriminatory, private, mostly religious schools. Public dollars belong in public schools that serve all students and unite our communities. Vouchers hurt. Public schools do the public good.
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