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    • Private school voucher expansion ‘frankly disgusting’: WNC lawmaker
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    Private school voucher expansion ‘frankly disgusting’: WNC lawmaker

    Harry Posted on

    State lawmakers will reconsider the controversial school voucher law that opponents say benefits wealthy families at the expense of Western North Carolina communities devastated by Tropical Storm Helene.

    Legislators in the North Carolina House of Representatives will vote on whether to invalidate this law on November 19 Governor Roy Cooper’s veto of Bill 10ONE appropriations bill This would allocate an additional $463 million this school year to the state’s Opportunity Scholarship Program, which provides vouchers for families to pay private school tuition. (The bill would also require North Carolina sheriffs to comply with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement requests to detain people the federal agency believes are in the U.S. illegally.)

    Overriding Cooper’s veto would clear the voucher program’s waiting list of about 55,000 students. Funding increases will also be locked in until the 2031-32 school year, when an $800 million budget has been allocated for the program.

    Following the Helene incident, which killed more than 100 people in the state. More than 100,000 homes were damaged and more than 1,000 roads and bridges were closedCommunities in WNC are beginning a years-long process of recovery and rebuilding that is estimated to cost more than $50 billion. Critics of HB 10 believe the money allocated for the voucher program would be better spent on recovery efforts. Although Cooper requested nearly $4 billion from state lawmakers for disaster relief, lawmakers passed only two funding bills totaling less than $1 billion.

    “We should not be choosing private school vouchers over hurricane relief for Western North Carolina,” Cooper told the Citizen Times on Nov. 14. Significant assistance for Hurricane Helene recovery.”

    Mike Long, president of Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina, a nonprofit that helps match families with schools that meet their children’s educational needs, said the state has already devoted hundreds of millions of dollars to relief efforts and has sufficient funds. Redundancy to provide even more as we expand the coupon program.

    “The Opportunity Scholarship Program does not put a dent in anyone’s budget in any way,” Long said. “If anything, it empowers parents to get the best education for their children and saves the state education dollars in doing so.”

    ‘This is where they should invest their money’

    Burke County Public Schools would lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding for private schools if the Opportunity Scholarship Program is expanded, Wendi Craven, an outgoing member of the Burke County Board of Education, told the Citizen Times on Nov. 15.

    Craven said the loss of funding would likely cause the district to cut many teaching positions.

    Four hundred students attended private schools in Burke County in the 2023-24 school year, according to a study. NC Department of Administration report. That year, 176 students were given vouchers at five private schools in the district. total more than $800,000.

    Craven, who succeeded Helene as principal of Hickory High School in Catawba County, believes lawmakers should allocate as much money as they can to rebuild public schools and storm-damaged communities. He said lawmakers also need to address the learning loss and trauma public school students are experiencing as a result of Helene.

    “That’s where they should be investing their money,” Craven said.

    Long, of Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina, said the voucher program saves the state money, given that the amount spent on each voucher is less than the average per-student spending of students attending public schools.

    in 2022 North Carolina’s average spending per student was $12,298According to the US Census Bureau.

    Coupon amounts with the Opportunity Scholarship Program by household income That figure ranges from $3,360 for top earners to $7,468 for a family of four earning $57,720 a year or less.

    “What we have always advocated is that the education money saved as a result of the program can be better used to improve public schools in rural areas,” Long said.

    But according to Craven, this money is not returning to rural areas.

    “The majority of those who will receive this money already have children going to private school,” Craven said.

    The number of students receiving coupons increased by 27%

    More than 130,000 students attended private schools in North Carolina in the 2023-24 school year. That year, 32,549 of those students received vouchers. Annual report of the Opportunity Scholarship program It was published in October, with a 27% increase compared to the previous year.

    When the program was established in 2017, only low-income families transferring from public schools were eligible for vouchers. Applications increased after state lawmakers repealed these requirements in 2023; critics believe this unfairly benefits wealthy families.

    “By eliminating the income cap and requiring students to transfer from public school, as we did last year, we are providing financial support for millionaires to continue sending their children to private school,” said Rep. Lindsey Prather, a Democrat who represents rural areas. part of Buncombe County, told the Citizen Times on Nov. 13.

    Approximately 4,000 students attend private schools in Buncombe County, according to N.C. Department of Administration data. Close to 500 of these students attended only four private schools, generating close to $3 million in total voucher funds.

    Prather said pushing for voucher expansion in the wake of Helene was “unreasonable” and “frankly disgusting” because of the amount of money needed to rebuild and lawmakers have yet to pass a funding bill providing for it. direct grants to help small businesses in the region.

    But Prather said he has “some small hope that lawmakers will do the right thing.”

    Republican Rep. Mark Pless, who represents Haywood and Madison counties, told the Citizen Times on Nov. 14 that he wasn’t sure whether he would vote to override Cooper’s veto.

    “I believe in the coupon system,” Pless said. “I truly believe people should be able to make these decisions. “But when this bill was first enacted, we did not experience the devastation we have now.”

    When HB 10 passed the NC House in September, votes fell mostly along party lines Republicans, who hold a slim supermajority, overwhelmingly vote for the bill. All three Democrats voted in favor.

    Given the devastation WNC has experienced due to Helene, Pless said he is concerned about future spending of 10 HB on the voucher program.

    “I’m just worried about the future because we’re going to see businesses negatively impacted by the devastation on Interstate 40 and a lot of people canceling their planned trips to Western North Carolina,” Pless said. “Even those that survive will lose customers.”

    He added: “I don’t know that we know the full picture, and we probably won’t know the full picture until the first of the year.”

    More: NC teacher pay raise? Private school vouchers? Asheville, Buncombe, candidates’ stances

    More: ‘We don’t want you here’: NC Gov. Cooper to fall for colorful tourists after historic flood

    Jacob Biba is the county watchdog reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times. Reach him at [email protected].

    Harry
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