Our new report takes a close look at North Carolina’s voucher programs, showing how they have mutated far beyond their original legislated purpose to become a massive drain on the state budget. So-called “Opportunity Scholarship” private school tuition vouchers have expanded rapidly over the past few years, transforming a limited, targeted initiative into a universal entitlement that redirects substantial public resources to private education.
Originally justified as a way to support low-income families seeking alternatives to the underperforming public schools their children were attending, the state’s voucher programs now function primarily as broad subsidies for private school tuition, including for wealthy families who have never enrolled their children in public schools rather than expanding educational options for underserved students.
North Carolina School Vouchers: Destroying Public Education examines the history of the NC’s voucher programs in the state, explores the original justifications for implementing them, and documents their growth; analyzes the pedagogical and operational differences between public and private schools; considers the mechanisms through which private schools are exempt from accountability measures that apply to public schools; and discusses problems with voucher programs in North Carolina and in other states, including poor academic outcomes.
In addition, the report identifies and analyzes problematic features of voucher schools such as racial segregation, discriminatory admissions policies, private school tuition increases, and lack of financial transparency.
The rapid growth of vouchers has undermined public schools. At the same time voucher funding has accelerated, public school funding has remained largely flat in recent budgets. North Carolina’s drop in the national rankings for teacher pay and per pupil expenditure reflects the legislature’s failure to sufficiently support our public schools.
