North Carolina was once considered the most progressive state in the South. Since the Tea Party sweep in 2010, the rightwing has gerrymandered the state so that The Legislature (the General Assembly) has a super-majority of Republicans. The General Assembly is currently redrawing Congressional districts to eliminate Democratic seats before the 2026 Congressional elections. All this in a state that elects a Democraric Governor!
Of course, the General Assembly enacted vouchers and removed income limits. The state now subsidizes the tuition of all students in private and religious schools. The biggest beneficiaries are religious schools.
The state is on track to spend $600 million this year for vouchers, most of which subsidize students in religious schools. Many of these schools use a Bible-based curriculum.
That is $600 million of public taxpayer money that should have been spent on public schools, schools that educate all children, not just those they choose.
Nearly 100,000 North Carolinians are now getting Opportunity Scholarships — meaning taxpayers are subsidizing tuition costs for most of the state’s private school students.
As of Oct. 6, 98,917 students were receiving Opportunity Scholarships — a 204% increase from two years ago and a 23% increase since last school year. The number of voucher students has exploded since state lawmakers opened the program last school year to all families, including wealthy families and those already attending private schools.
The number of voucher students will continue to rise because the N.C. State Education Assistance Authority is still accepting applications for the spring semester.
“North Carolina is on track to see over 100,000 students use an Opportunity Scholarship this year,” said Mike Long, president of Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina. “PEFNC is fully engaged to ensure every scholarship is used and that schools have the capacity to serve families: expanding private school seats through our EduBuilder initiative and maintaining vital outreach so parents know their options.
“Together, these strategies sustain both access and opportunity, making school choice real for every North Carolina family.”
It’s a milestone in the state’s education history that’s being criticized by supporters of public schools.
“It’s unfortunate because the dollar signs are so huge and our public schools are really struggling, and it’s a direct result of lack of support and financial investment in our public schools,” said Heather Koons, a spokesperson for Public Schools First NC.
The Opportunity Scholarship program has changed since it began providing vouchers to 1,216 students in the 2014-15 school year. The program was initially promoted by Republican lawmakers as a way to help low-income families pay for private schools to escape low-performing public schools.
Over time, the program’s demographics have shifted from majority Black to majority white as lawmakers raised the income eligibility limits. Now 75% of voucher students are white. That’s compared to 63% in the 2023-24 school year, when there were still income limits for receiving a voucher.
Family income is still used to determine the size of the award. Voucher amounts range from $3,458 to $7,686 per student for this school year.
Most of the Opportunity Scholarship students are using the money to attend religious schools.
“The true beneficiaries of this program are the students and families who now have the opportunity to access a Christian education that aligns with their values,” said Kevin Mathes, superintendent of North Raleigh Christian Academy.
Existing private students getting new vouchers
Opening the program to all families also coincided with state lawmakers sharply increasing voucher funding.
The state has awarded $279.9 million this semester, putting it on pace to give $559.8 million to private schools by the end of the school year.
In comparison, the state awarded $185.6 million two years ago and $432.2 million last school year. The increase in awards coincides with private schools encouraging both their existing and new students to apply for Opportunity Scholarships. Public Schools First NC found several private schools also raised their tuition as they got more voucher money. A report from the state Department of Public Instruction indicated most new voucher students last school year were existing private school students.
Voucher students used to account for a minority of North Carolina’s private school students. In the 2023-24 school year, there were 32,549 Opportunity Scholarship students out of 131,230 private school students statewide.
Last school year, there were 80,472 voucher students out of 135,738 private school students. This school year’s statewide private school enrollment figures won’t be released until next summer.
“I really think we’re just creeping up and up and up so that all the students and all the private schools that accept vouchers are going to be subsidized,” said Koons of Public Schools First NC.
Are private schools discriminating against voucher students?
Public Schools First has accused state lawmakers of using taxpayer dollars to discriminate against students and families because private schools can limit who they enroll. In contrast, public schools are supposed to accept all students.
Public Schools First singled out North Raleigh Christian Academy, which has received the most money from the Opportunity Scholarship program so far this school year at $3.1 million.
North Raleigh Christian’s admissions requirements include that at least one parent must be a Christian and students must score at grade level. In addition, the student handbook says “students with IQs of 90 or less are not enrolled because of the difficulty they will have in achieving academic success.”
Koons contrasted the amount North Raleigh Christian is now getting for voucher students compared to the $541,217 it received two years ago when the state still had income eligibility limits. The school is on pace to far exceed the $4.3 million in voucher money it received last school year.
“Wealthy families are now getting a state-subsidized tuition payment to go to a school that excludes students who may be challenging to teach,” Koons said.
Mathes, North Raleigh Christian’s superintendent, defended the school.
“Our admissions process considers each applicant holistically, with thoughtful attention to how NRCA can responsibly serve students within the scope of our mission and available resources as we partner with families in their children’s education,” Mathes said.
“While private schools like NRCA do not have access to the same range of specialized resources as public systems, we work diligently to serve students well within our capacity and to recommend alternative settings when another environment might better meet a child’s needs.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Universal vouchers always were the end game for the privatization of education as they provide abundant ways to waste public dollars on “schools of choice” with little to no regulation. Religious and other private schools often answer their windfall by raising tuition. Right wing parents are pleased that they can direct public funds to send their children to religious schools, even though private citizens cannot direct public funds to serve their whims in law enforcement, fire departments and any other community services. However, the voucher party will not last forever because states and communities are already feeling the pinch of such unregulated and, in many cases, reckless spending. The bloated voucher bills are coming due, and several states are facing higher taxes or deficit spending from unregulated voucher waste. It is only a matter time when the true privatization end game reveals itself. When costs explode, red states will likely declare that the burden of education belongs to parents’ personal responsibility, and wealthy libertarians and billionaires will laugh all the way to the bank. I just hope embattled public schools will still be standing when this happens.
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Vouchers, VAM and merit pay are the privatizer zombies that simply won’t die.
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Conservatives have been making such proposals regularly for the last 60 years.
Bailey’s post considers the dismantling of the DofEd as a done deal, based on decimation of its staff. But there are multiple lawsuits lodged against the DofEd’s crippling RIF’s in March, and additional RIFs planned during govt shutdown. STATUS: In June, a federal judge ordered reinstatement of the 260 RIF’d OCR staff while cases go thro court; DofEd began compliance, phased in Aug thro Oct—but Appeals court reversed in end-Sept. In July, SCOTUS allowed the other March layoffs to continue as lower courts weigh in. However, on Oct 20, a federal judge blocked fed employee RIF’s during shutdown (affecting another 466 DofEd employees). The details on OCR are confusing: i.e., an additional 260 staff were laid off – but is that reversed by the 10/20 ruling(?)
Most if not all of these suits include the illegality of exec branch closing an agency established by Congress.
Bailey also focuses on proposals to convert fed ed formula grants to no-strings block grants to states.
The only current proposal for ed block grants I can find is in the Trump FY2026 budget proposal: a consolidation of 18 programs currently funded at $6billion, cut to $2 billion. [Title I is excluded; special ed funding for one section of IDEA law is included [Part D for personnel devpt et al pgms to improve speced outcomes]. However– the Senate’s budget proposal maintains ed funding at roughly the same levels as in 2025—and specifically rejects the conversion of separate funding streams to a block grant.
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Our court system has failed the country on this issue. If private schools accept taxpayer dollars, they should be held to the same standards as public schools.
The idea that vouchers give parents “choice” is a sham — because in reality, it’s the schools doing the choosing, not the parents.
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