Time is running out for parents who are eligible for opportunity scholarships and haven’t applied. The deadline to apply for the Opportunity Scholarship Program, which provides up to $4,200 a year in tuition vouchers for low-income children to use at private schools, is March 1.
Darrell Allison, president of Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina, said the state has received about 1,720 new applications the scholarships during the first half of February. (The website accepting applications is here.)
“Typically, parents aren’t thinking about the next school year in the spring,” Allison said. He said the number of applicants indicates that parents are taking their children’s education seriously, and that the new school choice programs are popular.
The program passed the General Assembly in 2013 but faced a series of legal challenges. Last summer, the state Supreme Court ruled that the program is constitutional. The General Assembly also expanded the program’s budget for the 2015-16 school year to $25 million.
“If you assume that we will meet capacity, we would be looking at 6,200 students on the program,” Allison said. “I anticipate that we’ll have families on the waiting list.”
To be eligible to receive a scholarship for the 2016-17 school year, a family’s annual household income must not exceed 133 percent of the income that qualifies for the federal for free and reduced-price school lunch program. That comes out to about $59,790 for a family of four.
Allison said that a different program, one for students with disabilities, is already at capacity with 815 participants. That program allows disabled students to receive up to $8,000 per year for private school scholarships.
“We have a waiting list,” Allison said. “We’re just out of new money. We’re hopeful that we can, in this short session, address that issue.”
The General Assembly will reconvene on April 25 for its short session.