Editorial: Latest school voucher scheme neglects N.C.'s kids, aids the wealthy

CBC Editorial: Monday, May 6, 2024; #8928

The following is the opinion of Capitol Broadcasting Company

It is quite a contrast. Leaders of the North Carolina General Assembly are downright giddy in their demands for government payouts to wealthy families with kids at private schools. Legislation to accomplish just that is on the way to Gov. Roy Cooper. These leaders took great umbrage when critics, rightly, labeled it “welfare for the rich.”

What voucher expansion advocates did not utter was a word of support to address the desperate needs of North Carolina public schools – the ones they are constitutionally obligated to provide and support.

State Sen. Ralph Hise, one of the Appropriations Committee chairs, mocked state Sen. Natasha Marcus, D-Mecklenburg, for her description of the expansion of the public-school voucher program – giving $163 million to 40,000 families whose incomes exceed $115,430. There’s another $126 million for non-needy families with annual incomes starting at $57,720.

The $289 million for non-needy families is part of a $500-million expansion of the private school voucher program. The program was initially designed to provide the neediest families (those with average incomes less than $57,720) with options for private schools. With the latest changes, it will increase the number of students getting vouchers by 320% (from about 32,500 students to more than 104,400) and more than half are outside the initial family income limit.

“I'm a little perplexed by the fact that we are now, or at least certain people are, now calling paying for a child's education welfare. I mean I guess if you paid for it for a wealthy person, you'll call it welfare,” he said.

Whatever the real reasons legislative leaders have for expanding private school vouchers, they offered little accurate evidence and even less support for public education – as the state Constitution mandates.

Voucher backers tried to portray nearly all the families seeking vouchers as financially challenged. It is important to note that the average income for a North Carolina family of four is $62,250.

Further, that $163 million is more than the $91 million in state assistance provided in need-based aid to North Carolina students attending private colleges and universities.

Hise and Sen. Michael Lee, R-New Hanover, claimed these families are “on pins and needles wanting to know if their child is going to be able to go to the school of their choice.” The reality is that for many of these families, the children are already admitted or attending private schools. The only question for them is how much state government will give them and how much they’ll have to pay.

As legislators pump more taxpayer dollars into private school vouchers they display little concern for any accounting for how the money is used, assurance the funds support classroom instruction and demonstrable evidence that students are learning.

North Carolina’s Constitution is direct and clear about what legislators must do when it comes to public education. It is far more than simply providing money to send kids to school. Article IX, section 2 is plain and direct: “The General Assembly shall provide by taxation and otherwise for a general and uniform system of free public schools, which shall be maintained at least nine months in every year, and wherein equal opportunities shall be provided for all students.”

Lest anyone fail to grasp it, the state Supreme Court -- in repeated decisions joined in by both Republican and Democratic justices -- have said it means every child, regardless background or where they live, must have an “equal opportunity to receive a sound basic education.” That has been a repeated call from the state’s courts since the late 1990s in the Leandro case.

State Sen. Gladys Robinson sought, fruitlessly, to remind her fellow legislators of that: “When we talk about providing the same opportunities and for everybody, I think we need to go back to Leandro,” she said. “This General Assembly has failed every time to fully fund Leandro to provide the social workers, the nurses, the salary for the teachers, the additional teacher assistants, etc. for all children.”

The legislature has before it a consensus comprehensive plan to provide the resources public schools throughout the state need so every child has the opportunity for a quality education.

A state that ranks 48th in the nation in per student spending is NOT providing a uniform system of free public schools or moving toward a quality education for all children.

A state that ranks 49th in public school spending, as a portion of its gross domestic product is NOT providing a uniform system of free public schools or moving toward a quality education for every child.

A state that dropped last year from 36th to 38th nationally in overall teacher pay and this year sees an even worse projected drop to 41st – that is NOT providing a uniform system of free public schools or moving toward a quality education for every child.

The nearly $250 million the legislature wants to add to private school vouchers for those who don’t need, is NOT taxpayer dollars that will be spent on REAL needs in our schools, as outlined in the Comprehensive Remedial Plan including:

• Increasing teacher pay across the board by about 3.5%.
• Adding nearly 600 school counselors, social workers, psychologists and nurses.
• Putting 700 more teacher assistants in kindergarten through third-grade classrooms.

The leaders of the General Assembly need to be less enamored with their ideological passions and more devoted to their pledge of allegiance to the state Constitution.

North Carolina’s children deserve no less and the state’s future depends upon it.

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