Jane R. Wettach of Duke Law School has written a study of North Carolina’s voucher program. It is expensive, having cost the state thus far nearly $160 million. It diverts money from the public schools. Most of the voucher schools are religious schools. Voucher schools do not participate in the state’s accountability program so the academic progress—or lack thereof—cannot be assessed.
Some of the author’s conclusions:
The overarching assessment of the initial review of the voucher program from our previous report remains true: The North Carolina voucher program is well designed to promote parental choice, especially for parents who prefer religious education for their children. It is poorly designed, however, to promote better academic outcomes for children and is unlikely to do so over time.
The public has no information on whether the students with vouchers have made academic progress or have fallen behind. No data about the academic achievement of voucher students are available to the public, not even the data that are identified as a public record in the law. The State Education Assistance Authority (SEAA), which administers the program, concluded that the reporting of tests scores in aggregated form, as required by the legislature, produces no meaningful information. Therefore, the SEAA has discontinued requiring schools to produce the data and it no longer publishes any reports on test scores.
The number of children receiving vouchers has increased ten-fold since it began: from approximately 1,200 in the first year to 12,300 in 2019-20. Although the program has attracted additional students each year, the rate of growth has been less than the General Assembly anticipated and not all of the appropriation has been spent.
The program is designed to 3xpsnd but it seems likely that most of the available slots will not be used.
92% of vouchers are used in religious schools.
This is a program designed to have no accountability for results of any kind:
Other potential accountability measures for North Carolina private schools receiving vouchers do not exist. Unlike private schools in most states with similar voucher programs, North Carolina private schools accepting voucher money need not be accredited, adhere to state curricular or graduation standards, employ licensed teachers, or administer state End-of-Grade tests.
The program is nothing more than a pass-through of public money to parents who want their children to have a religious schooling, without regard to quality.
The amount of the voucher is small, about $4,200, not enough for a high-quality education, but just right for an inferior religious school without certified teachers. This is what the NC General Assembly wants.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The study is well crafted and it shows that the state legislature has no interest in anything other than making public funds for education available for private schools that engage in religious indoctrination. There is no accountability on the grounds that the performance of individual students and the schools is a private matter.
Laura Interesting that, “the performance of individual students and the schools is a private matter” while, at the same time, the techie arm the reform movement is into accumulating “big data” on everything that moves. CBK
Laura An afterthought: Oh . . . .I guess they can sell big data information, but their selling it is also a private matter. CBK
State support for religious indoctrination. Jefferson would be so proud!
Laura,
An overarching goal by some prominent elites is to transform America into the “Empire of Our Lady of Guadalupe”. The nationally recognized, Prof. Vermuele at Harvard who trains future lawyers has one proposal in which he advocates for Catholics to be moved to the front of the immigration line.
Recently, a journalist reviewed Vermuele’s efforts , 4-2-2020, NY Magazine, “No, Theocracy and Progressivism Aren’t Equally Authoritarian.”
“It is poorly designed, however, to promote better academic outcomes for children and is unlikely to do so over time.”
How do ed reformers explain the fact that they treat public schools and private schools differently?
They all promote an ideological scheme where both public schools and private schools are publicly funded. Yet all of their mandates and measures apply only to public schools.
How can this be anything other than an ideological preference for private schools or a bias against public schools?
It’s completely and utterly incoherent. If they aren’t going to have any standards for the publicly funded private schools they promote then public school students shouldn’t be subjected to their measurement schemes either.
Our kids get the worse of both worlds from ed reform- they get no support from ed reformers and they also get all of the gimmicky fads and garbage they impose on our kids. If they’re not going to contribute anything positive to public schools (and they’re not) can we at least be free of their measurement schemes?
The SCOTUS case to be decided soon, Kristin Biel v. St. James Catholic School will expand the difference between public and religious schools- the civil rights protections applicable to teacher employment – potentially eliminated- and presumably, the case will set precedent for all employees of religious organizations, significant in part because the nation’s 3rd largest employer is Catholic organizations.
“Preference for private schools”
The Koch Network’s promotion of Catholic schools finds further explanation in the current SCOTUS case, Kristin Biel v. St. James Catholic School. Employment civil rights’ safeguards are jeopardized by the case. Not surprisingly, it’s been reported that Trump supports the Catholic side against employment rights guaranteed by U.S. law.
If SCOTUS decides in another significant case, Espinosa v. Montana , in favor of Espinosa, it will, when coupled with the St. James case, result in taxpayers forced to fund discriminatory, capricious,… employment practices.
In light of right wing association with anti-black bias, discrimination against people of color could get much worse in the U.S.
Interestingly, a religious organization/faction, Catholic Labor Network, made the following reply when asked if the Network had posted about the Biel case, “We have not. I am not an attorney and am unsure I could do justice to the legal arguments regarding freedom and employment law.” Journalists at the LA Times didn’t feel equally constrained.
With so little oversight or accountability there is no way for North Carolina to know it is providing students with a quality education through vouchers. National studies show that voucher students generally perform worse than students in public schools. The state does know that 92% of the voucher students are using public money to attend religious schools. Despite the lack of evidence, the state is determined to expand vouchers.
The lock step adoption of vouchers in ed reform is, to me, the “tell” that The Movement was and is wholly ideological.
If they cared about “better schools” they would measure publicly-funded voucher schools, and they don’t.
Apparently it’s A-OK with them if children attend failing schools as long as the schools aren’t public or have employees represented by labor unions.
It isn’t about “great schools”. It’s about schools that meet ed reform’s ideological requirements- public schools do not.
and having children who are strategically manipulated by voucher/choice laws means adults easier to manipulate when they are old enough to vote