In 2013, the North Carolina General Assembly established the Opportunity Scholarship program. This state-sponsored voucher program provides families with an alternative to public education by offering the means to send their children to private schools. Each scholarship ranges from $3,360 to $7,468 annually, divided among four income tiers. The lowest tier caters to a family of four earning up to $57,720, while the highest tier caters to families earning more than $259,740 a year. The scholarships, which are awarded based on household income, cover the necessary tuition and fees for eligible private schools.
By 2023, the North Carolina General Assembly permitted the expansion of the program, resulting in a flood of approximately 72,000 scholarship applications by the March 1, 2024, deadline. This unprecedented volume of applications caused the N.C. State Education Assistance Authority (NCSEAA) website to crash within the first few hours of the open enrollment period.
According to a press release, the NCSEAA extended scholarship offers to the families of 13,511 "new" students, who had not previously received an Opportunity Scholarship, for the 2024-25 academic year. At present, an estimated 54,800 applicants remain on a waitlist. However, the North Carolina Senate Appropriations Committee is actively pursuing a bill that would secure funding for these remaining applicants.
The proposed committee substitute for House Bill 823 includes $248 million in one-time funding for the upcoming school year, along with $215.5 million in recurring support for scholarships for the 2025-2026 academic year.
Despite the program's popularity, Governor Roy Cooper has criticized the Opportunity Scholarship program, alleging that it diverts a substantial portion of public-school funding. Conversely, Dr. Robert Luebke, director of the Center for Effective Education at the John Locke Foundation, argues that the expenditure for Opportunity Scholarship awards is minuscule in comparison to overall spending on the public-school system. He believes that opponents of school choice exploit this issue for political gain.
During a visit to Pactolus Global School in Greenville, NC, Governor Cooper claimed that the expanded voucher program could strip nearly $2.5 million from state education funding in Pitt County during its inaugural year. He asserted that this loss would adversely impact not only students but also Pitt County's workforce, given that public schools are the county's third-largest employer.
However, the data tells a different story. In the 2021-2022 academic year, Pitt County public schools received nearly $269 million in funding for their 23,302 enrolled students, according to profiles provided by the NC Department of Public Instruction. Meanwhile, 224 students received Opportunity Scholarships. The NCSEAA, responsible for administering the voucher program, did not have records of total funds disbursed per county for that year. However, the average award amount statewide was $3,832 per student. This translates to approximately $858,368 allocated to the Opportunity Scholarship in Pitt County, which constitutes only .03% of total public-school expenditure in the county.
Senator Mike Lee (R-New Hanover) pointed out that even with this year's appropriation, the Opportunity Scholarships amount to about 3% of the overall education budget and just under 4.5% of the K-12 budget. He emphasized that in the grand scheme of the education budget, the impact of the scholarship program remains relatively small.
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