The Opportunity Scholarship Program is nearing a key milestone of nearly 100,000 North Carolina students enrolled.
As of Oct. 6, state data show 98,917 students were using Opportunity Scholarships — a 204% increase from two years ago and a 23% jump since last school year. The North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority, the state agency responsible for overseeing the voucher program, is still taking applications for the spring term, meaning the total could surpass 100,000 this year.
Of all enrollments this year, 65,491 are renewals — meaning that roughly 15,000 students who held scholarships last year did not renew. Opportunity Scholarship students made up a minority of private-school enrollment in 2023-24 — 32,549 of 131,230 students — but last year comprised a much larger share at 80,472 of 135,738 students.
“All the arrows are pointing up for the Opportunity Scholarship Program: higher enrollment, larger awards, and the possibility of more help from the federal tax credit scholarship,” said Dr. Robert Luebke, director of the Center for Effective Education at the John Locke Foundation. “These are all signs that choice is here to stay. It’s just a matter of what choice will look like. Yes, we won the argument. Did anyone notice?”
Opportunity Scholarships, available to all K-12 students, are the state’s voucher program designed to enable families to choose a private education for their children.
The program has grown since its inception in the 2014-2015 school year, when it served 1,216 students. Lawmakers opened the scholarship to all families, regardless of income, last school year and raised income eligibility limits, changes that coincided with a sharp increase in awards. This semester the state has awarded $279.9 million in vouchers and is on pace to distribute about $559.8 million by the end of the school year — up from $432.2 million last year and $185.6 million two years ago.
Family income still determines award size, which ranges from $3,458 to $7,686 per student. There are four income tier levels ranging from $59,478 for a family of four in the first tier, to more than $267,651 a year in the fourth tier.
North Raleigh Christian Academy has received the most voucher funding to date at just over $3 million. Several other private schools currently exceed $2 million in awards, including Grace Christian School in Sanford, Metrolina Christian Academy in Indian Trail, Concord Academy in Concord, and Liberty Christian Academy in Richlands.
Overall, Wake County has the most scholarship awards at $34 million total, followed by Mecklenburg County at $25 million, Guilford County at $15 million, Cumberland County at $14 million, and Forsyth County at $12 million.
An NC Department of Public Instruction report found the state saved about $10.1 million last school year after 5,955 students who attended public school in 2023–24 switched to private schools using Opportunity Scholarships in 2024–25. The report showed those students received roughly $34.3 million in scholarship awards versus an estimated $44.4 million in average state per-pupil public-school allocations, and notes that scholarship amounts are generally lower than the average state per-pupil allocation while cautioning impacts vary by timing, student characteristics, and district factors.
In addition to making the Opportunity Scholarship universally available, NC lawmakers have also been working to make a new federal tax-credit scholarship a reality. The tax-credit program is part of the Big Beautiful Bill Act enacted by Congress earlier this year and would allow NC taxpayers to make deductible contributions to designated Scholarship Granting Organizations (SSOs), which in turn would issue stipends to students for private school expenses, including tuition and other allowable costs. The measure was vetoed by Gov. Josh Stein and is pending an override vote in the state House.
A recent poll from the American Federation for Children found broad support for school choice and the new federal tax‑credit scholarship. Seventy‑three percent said school choice should be open to all families, 55% supported it regardless of income or geography, and in a head‑to‑head legislative choice 57% would back a pro‑school‑choice candidate versus 20% for an opponent.
