By Don Martin and David Rice

RALEIGH (May 5, 2023) – News Item: Average teacher pay in North Carolina public schools ranks 34th in the nation this school year, up from 36th last year.

And North Carolina ranks 46th in starting teacher pay.¹ 

How’s that for North Carolina pride? Let’s hear it for 34th! And 46th? Uh, never mind…

Yet at the same time, both chambers of the NC General Assembly are pushing bills that would divert $1.3 billion over the next seven years, or more than half a billion dollars a year by 2032, from public schools to vouchers that support private schools. 

The bills would remove all income restrictions for the so-called “Opportunity Scholarships,” effectively subsidizing students from wealthy families who are already enrolled in private schools.²

NEVER HAS IT BEEN MORE CLEAR what the NC General Assembly’s education agenda is: Underfund public education and subsidize private education with taxpayer dollars.

This comes at the same time the General Assembly has defied rulings in the long-running Leandro case over state funds for public schools. A judge ruled just last month that state funds for public education last year and this year still fall $677.8 million short of the plan parties in the case agreed to.³

“It’s going to devastate our public schools,” said Rep. Julie von Haefen, D-Wake. “We have billions of dollars that we owe to fulfill our constitutional responsibility.”⁴

Opportunity Scholarships were approved by the General Assembly in 2013. Students who meet certain income guidelines can receive a scholarship to be “redeemed” at any private school. The amount authorized by the legislature has never been exhausted in any year, so legislators have expanded income limits to let more students take advantage.

In previous years, the maximum scholarship was always less than the state spends per student in public schools. But for next school year, legislators propose to provide scholarships that would range from $3,246 for the wealthiest families to $7,214 to low-income families.⁵ For the first time, the maximum scholarship would meet the amount the state spends per pupil.

For public schools, there is no savings unless the reduction in students results in fewer teachers, turning the lights off in classes, or parking school buses. There will still be a principal, office staff, and overhead costs that include school support staff and central office support.

Though vouchers were originally pitched as a way for poor students to escape “failing” public schools, with income limits removed, why wouldn’t the parent of any student already in private school choose to get a state-paid discount on their child’s private school tuition? 

If the number of students attending charter schools, private schools and home schools continues to grow, traditional public schools will serve larger numbers of students from poorer families and with special needs.

AND WITHOUT ACCOUNTABILITY MEASURES, North Carolina taxpayers simply won’t know whether students are being prepared. 

Private schools are required to administer national standardized tests in grades 3-6, 9 and 11. But no one is examining the success of Opportunity Scholarship students. 

So when the state awards hundreds of millions of dollars to private schools as Opportunity Scholarships, North Carolinians have no idea whether students who used those scholarships are learning.

Certainly poor students can learn. But poorer students need transportation, free or reduced-price breakfast and lunch, access to remedial supports and technology they can take home.

If traditional public schools are to be successful as they become concentrated with low-income and special needs students, they will need more money – not less – to get the job done.

But the General Assembly’s agenda is clear.

Don Martin is the retired superintendent of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools and now serves as Chair of the Forsyth County Commissioners. David Rice is the Executive Director of Higher Ed Works.

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¹ https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article274845931.html; https://hew.aveltsagency.com/2023/04/playing-catch-up-on-starting-teacher-pay-with-alabama/. 
² https://www.wral.com/story/gop-lawmakers-want-to-pay-for-students-private-education-how-we-got-here-and-why-they-face-resistance/20834411/; https://www.wral.com/story/nc-senate-committee-backs-expansion-of-private-school-vouchers/20829910/.
³ https://www.wral.com/story/judge-nc-s-unfunded-education-mandates-total-677-8m/20819047/. 
⁴ https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article274929156.html.
⁵ https://www.wral.com/story/nc-senate-committee-backs-expansion-of-private-school-vouchers/20829910/.