Student vouchers expand in North Carolina – at a cost

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North Carolina's expansion of private school vouchers to all students regardless of income signals the state's willingness to fund individuals' education with public money at the expense of taxpayer-funded campuses.

Private school vouchers are expanding in North Carolina.

The General Assembly expanded the private school voucher program which will allocate hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money to private schools. As a result, all families – regardless of income – are eligible for Opportunity Scholarships.

Voucher expansion proponents contend legislative Republicans’ November override of then-Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of HB 10 opens education opportunities for all families – including the wealthy – by tying taxpayer money to schools instead of campuses.

"A historic expansion of parental school choice is now a reality in North Carolina,” Mike Long, president of Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina said in November. “By overriding Governor Cooper’s veto of HB10, the legislature sends a clear message that our state will continue to invest in students over systems.”  

All K-12 students are eligible for Opportunity Scholarships, with low-income families taking priority based on household income and tied to a percentage of per-pupil public school spending. Vouchers ranged from $3,000 to $7,000 for the 2024-25 school year. The 2024 award amount based on income for a family of four in Mecklenburg County was:

• Tier I: $57,720 or less (24% of vouchers)

• Tier II: $57,720 – $115,440 (18% of vouchers)

• Tier III: $115,440 – $259,750 (30% of vouchers)

Tier IV: $259,750 or more (28% of vouchers)

“[Lawmakers] did two big things that had caused a lot of change,” said Heather Koons, director of research and communication at Public Schools First NC. “Number one, they basically made the voucher universally eligible. So, any family with any income level can now receive taxpayer funding – basically a voucher from the state. Even millionaires are eligible. …

“The other thing that they did is they made it so one did not have to have ever attended a public school at any grade. So, this whole notion of families wanting to leave a public school that they're dissatisfied with and use a voucher to go to a private school has been eliminated because now the voucher can go to anyone who never intended to send their child to a public school.”

Koons insists expanding eligibility is not just a burden on taxpayers but a philosophical change as well since any family can get a voucher.

“Our [state] constitution says that the legislators are responsible for funding one uniform system of public schools,” she said. “That's what our constitution requires, and they're completely going off that and now funding private education for people who don't even need the money.”

Private school vouchers have an outsized impact in Mecklenburg County.

Among the 89 schools that Public Schools First NC has data on in Mecklenburg County, six of them are receiving less funding for vouchers than before. This also includes schools that didn’t have vouchers for the 2024-25 school year and Northside Christian Academy which closed last year. 

“With all the money that the state is allocating toward these private schools, they could make the choice to use those dollars in the K-12 budget instead,” Koons said. “So, these are all choices the legislators are making, and this year alone, $40 million has gone to this. $40 million of taxpayer dollars has gone to private schools in Mecklenburg County. $40 million and this is in one year. So, since the program's inception, $83 million has been spent on private school tuition that goes to schools in Mecklenburg County.” 

Schools like Carmel Christian, Charlotte Christian and Charlotte Catholic were among the Mecklenburg schools with the largest increases in fund allotment for tuition vouchers. Carmel Christian, for example, went from $231,646 in 2023-24 to $3.5 million last year – a $2.6 million increase, or a 1,153% spike.

Record numbers of North Carolina families are opting for school choice. According to PEFNC, as of 2023, the number of students attending public charter, private, or home schools surpassed 420,000, accounting for more than 22% of K-12 students. It leads to an uncertain future for education. Will private schools increase tuition to correspond with greater access to vouchers? Will it increase in enrollment? Will public schools, long underfunded by the state according to advocates, get appropriations commensurate with state law and confirmed by the Leandro lawsuit?

“The number one effect that has already taken place is that the NC legislature is underfunding public schools in such an egregious fashion,” Koons said, “so all this money could instead be going to public schools, but they're making the choice to fund the private schools. … It’s hundreds of millions of dollars that could be going to public schools. What happens is that the public schools have less money, and so they have larger class sizes because they have less money and probably fewer teachers, they're having a hard time fully staffing.

“We have a teacher crisis in North Carolina because the legislature is not funding salary increases, so we have lower salaries that are surrounding states. In Mecklenburg County, it's a really big problem, because South Carolina pays a lot more.”

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