Weekend Joe: NC Public Schools Under Attack
- dalton buchanan
- Apr 18
- 4 min read
At the next monthly School Board meeting, I’ll be taking a close look at the rapid expansion of state funding supporting private (mostly religious) schools through vouchers. Since public comment at the School Board meeting is limited to just 3 minutes, I’ll use the substance of my remarks as the basis for this Weekend Joe offering.
The Start
An early voucher program in North Carolina began in 2013 — known as the Opportunity Scholarships Program — with two pathways: one for students with disabilities and another for students from low-income families.
Starting in 2022, North Carolina expanded its voucher programs to allow all students — regardless of income level or any other at-risk factors — to receive state funding to attend private schools. This swift transition has been fueled by massive increases in funding.
The Republican supermajority in the General Assembly passed a bill last year that substantially expanded the program, adding $463 million for the current school year alone. In total, the program is expected to cost $6.5 billion between now and 2033.
Operating Principles, Supervision, and Oversight
Parents complete a form that helps the state determine the level of voucher support. While every family is technically eligible for assistance, the amount is awarded on a sliding scale based on family finances.
So, what does the data say about the impact of this expansion?
The top 24 North Carolina private schools received between $670,000 and $1.5 million each in the current school year from the voucher fund.
These schools raised tuition by an average of 6.7% from last school year to this one. A look at 11 private schools that do not accept vouchers showed an identical tuition increase.
However, the same 24 schools that do accept vouchers plan to increase tuition by 15.8% next school year, compared to just 4.5% for the 11 schools not receiving voucher funds.
Voucher proponents claim that these programs make private schools more accessible to families who couldn’t otherwise afford them. The data strongly suggests otherwise. Private schools were not financially viable for most North Carolina families before — and that hasn’t changed. Tuition increases are outpacing any benefit vouchers might offer, rendering the program ineffective for expanding access.
In truth, the primary beneficiaries of voucher funding are the private schools themselves. Billions of taxpayer dollars are being funneled into private school coffers, while public school funding continues to suffer — and we already rank 48th in the nation for public school funding.
Fraud and Accountability
There is mounting evidence of abuse within the program. Data from the two agencies charged with oversight show:
Several schools have received more voucher funds than they have students.
Some schools continued to receive payments even after they stopped submitting enrollment data.
In 43 cases, schools received more vouchers than the number of students they reported. If those enrollment figures are accurate, that’s approximately $1.6 million in fraudulent payments.
The bigger concern: there is no coordinated, state-supervised system to track this money. Much of the fraud is being uncovered by investigative journalists — not by the state.
And while financial abuse is troubling, the lack of oversight goes much further. The law — written and championed by Republican legislators — allows voucher-funded private schools to:
Reject students for any reason (or no reason at all).
Exclude students with special needs.
Deny admission to LGBTQ+ students and disproportionately reject students of color.
Observers in multiple states have noted that modern voucher programs are fueling a resurgence of segregation. When desegregation orders first came down from the federal government, many states saw a rise in private schools created specifically to avoid integration. Sound familiar?
No Standards, No Transparency
Voucher-funded private schools are:
Not required to assess student academic performance.
Not required to follow the North Carolina academic standards.
Not required to use state-approved curricula.
Not required to submit financial reporting or transparency data.
So why is the Republican-controlled legislature prepared to invest $6.5 billion over the next 8 years into schools that operate in the shadows, with virtually no accountability or performance data to support this massive investment?
DAVE, Meet Vouchers
Last week, I wrote about state Senator “Chainsaw” Tim Moffitt and his push to root out waste, fraud, and abuse in government spending — via his proposed NC version of DOGE called DAVE.
If he's serious about waste, then I humbly suggest the first place he investigate should be this $6.5 billion giveaway to (mostly) wealthy families who already send their kids to private schools. “Chainsaw” Tim should take a hard look at his own party’s reckless voucher program before hunting for other “extravagances.”
Vouchers do little to help working-class or low-income families. Instead, they shift billions of dollars away from public schools, creating a two-tiered education system with no clear benefit to the public. As this debate continues, expect accountability and oversight to remain a flashpoint — and rightfully so.
Weekend Joe
Joe Elliott
Carolann Connor
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