Applications for some 20,000 private school scholarships designed for low- and middle-income families opened this week for the 2022-23 school year, launching what promises to be another robust year of growth for school choice in the Tar Heel State. The Opportunity Scholarship Program, in existence since 2013, enables North Carolina families of moderate means to...
Support for the Opportunity Scholarship Program stands at 61%, according to a new Civitas Poll of likely voters presented by the John Locke Foundation. The results dropped during National School Choice Week 2022, an annual nationwide celebration of educational options for all students. The results were released during a virtual poll luncheon Jan. 27. The...
Defenders of North Carolina’s Opportunity Scholarship Program want a three-judge panel to hear a lawsuit challenging the voucher program. They’re asking the N.C. Court of Appeals to reverse a lower court’s ruling on the issue. Three separate briefs filed Wednesday at the Appeals Court all supported the lawsuit’s transfer from a single Superior Court judge...
Friday, Nov. 18 will go down as an important day in our state’s recent history. That is the day when the Republican-led General Assembly and Gov. Roy Cooper came to terms on a state budget for the new biennium. It’s a state budget that propels our state one step forward in funding students rather than...
Many North Carolinians breathed a sigh of relief last week when the GOP-led legislature and Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper came to terms on a budget for the new biennium. School choice advocates were among them and have plenty to celebrate in the new spending plan. “There is greater demand for educational options than ever before....
Without North Carolina’s school-choice scholarships for students with special needs, retired soldier James Martin would have moved his family to another state. That’s how important these scholarships have been to his 11-year-old daughter, Mia. “It’s been priceless,” said Martin, a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. “People ask me why we’re staying...
It’s no secret that COVID-19 has upended nearly every aspect of our lives. But what may surprise many North Carolinians is the pandemic’s impact on education in our state. Newly released figures from the state show a dramatic acceleration of the decade-long trend of parents moving their children from traditional public schools to home, private, and charter...
A bill to expand the Opportunity Scholarship Program passed the N.C. House, 69-49, on Tuesday, April 13, following a floor debate that focused on accountability. Created in 2013, Opportunity Scholarships are designed to help families who would otherwise struggle to afford private-school tuition but who want to leave their locally zoned public school. House Bill...
Republicans in the N.C. House are advancing a bill that would expand and strengthen the state’s three school-choice scholarship programs that help low-income children and those with special needs attend a private school. The action sets up a coming confrontation with Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, who has consistently targeted the state’s largest school-choice program...
If parents want to send their child or children to a school that will champion and not scoff at America’s founding principles, there is no legitimate reason a bureaucratic system should halt it.
Virtual learning is taking a toll on Chloe Dixon’s children. Dixon took her eldest daughter out of public school because of mental health issues. She was able to send the girl to private school, but her two other children are still in public school in Cumberland County, where instruction is entirely virtual. The two students...
