Photo: Tim Barnwell
Legislative News by Nelda Holder –
The news network in North Carolina—including such “personal news” channels as the ubiquitous Facebook, as well as plain old neighborhood gossip—has been abuzz recently over a Republican leadership plan at the Statehouse to increase the state’s controversial “Opportunity Scholarship” funding by sending roughly half a billion more dollars (with more to come) directly to the state’s school voucher program.
And it isn’t just the money that so many—all the way up to Gov. Roy Cooper (D)—are questioning. The plan rushed into place by the Republican leadership would change the current voucher program to eliminate income requirements for families choosing to use the “free” tuition money. That would accommodate paying for more children to go to private schools—which are held to few standards by the state. And it would offer a nice kickback to families whose finances already allow them to pay for private school tuition. Finally, all of this would take even more money away from our state’s malnourished public schools.
Ultimately, that means that if the companion bills SB 406 (Choose Your School, Choose Your Future) and HB 823 (Eliminate School Choice Program Waitlists) pass—and they’re certainly well on their way—a lot of investment that could have been dedicated to our struggling public school system will fly right off the legislative dome.
Show us the money
Oddly, this rush to expenditure followed an announcement by the Office of State Budget and Management—just before the legislature’s April 24 opening of the session—that the state could expect a $1 billion plus surplus for the 2024-25 budget.
Never mind that such a windfall could begin to address the fact that, according to a recent posting by the nearly 40-year-old, nonpartisan Public School Forum of North Carolina, currently “over one-third of our educators earn less than a livable wage,” and at the…
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