What are school vouchers? School vouchers are education tax dollars that are funneled from public schools to pay for a portion of the tuition of private or religious schools.
The North Carolina “Opportunity Scholarship” program currently allows families with low incomes to use up to $6,492 in taxpayer funds on private school tuition. This “school vouchers” program began in 2014 and has gradually expanded each year. Originally, the program was supposed to provide relief for low-income families in neighborhoods with struggling public schools.
Leaders in the North Carolina General Assembly recently eliminated the income requirements for the program to allow millionaires to use your tax dollars for a discount on their private school tuition bill. The voucher expansion will hurt families enrolled in NC public schools by slashing school budgets that are already underfunded.
Rather than pass the two bills (HB823 & SB406) they were considering, leaders in the NC General Assembly instead slid the massive private school voucher expansion into the state budget. This secretive process prevented the public from engaging in meaningful dialogue about the devastating effect that the voucher expansion will have on students, public schools, and communities across North Carolina.
59% of N.C. voters oppose using taxpayer funds for private school vouchers and 83% demand accountability for voucher schools!
The truth about
Private Schools
Limited accessibility: High tuition fees and admission requirements of private and charter schools restrict access for working-class families, worsening educational inequities.
Skimming of students: Private and charter schools can selectively admit high-performing students, leaving struggling students and those with special needs in underfunded public schools.
Drain on public school resources: When students leave for private or charter schools, public schools lose funding, negatively impacting the quality of education for students who need the most support.
Lack of accountability: Private schools have less oversight and may not adhere to the same standards or testing, making it hard to assess their effectiveness for all students.
Limited support for students with disabilities: Private and charter schools often lack the resources and expertise to support students with disabilities.
Increased segregation: Private and charter schools can contribute to socioeconomic and racial segregation, perpetuating educational inequalities for low-income students.
The truth about
School Vouchers
Vouchers are a catastrophe for students learning. Education researchers have examined test score data to measure how well students learned in states that use school vouchers.
The impact of vouchers on students in Ohio and Louisiana has been worse than Hurricane Katrina and worse than Covid.
To hide this fact, the proposed expansion eliminates the requirement that private schools submit test score data to North Carolina education officials.
Tens of thousands of voucher dollars go unused every year because not enough parents want them.
The proposed expansion triples the marketing budget for the voucher program to try to convince more parents to take them.
Tuition at the top private schools in North Carolina costs four to five times the estimated average voucher amount.
Scam schools and low-quality private schools may be the only options for poor and working-class families who use vouchers in some communities.
Many private schools discriminate against students of color, students with disabilities, students of other faiths, and LGBTQ+ students.
Around 20% of students leave voucher programs each year either because they walked out or were pushed out of private schools.
Vouchers create a revolving door that undermines local public schools in your community.
The proposed voucher expansion would cost nearly $5 billion over the next decade.
Most of the people who use vouchers in other states never enrolled their children in public schools to begin with.
80% in Arizona
89% in New Hampshire
75% in Wisconsin
60% in Missouri
The bills to expand vouchers in NC are just copycats from other states, not what North Carolinians need or want.