NC General Assembly Passes Vetoed Private School Voucher Expansion Bill Into Law

NCASA News

Members of the North Carolina General Assembly (NCGA) voted this week to override the Governor’s veto of House Bill 10 and pass into law nearly half a billion dollars in new funding for NC’s Opportunity Scholarship Program, commonly known as “private school vouchers.” HB 10, which became Session Law 2024-55 on Wednesday, Nov. 20, provides $463.46 million in additional funding for private school vouchers just this year, which will be made retroactive to the July 1, 2024 start of FY 2024-2025, as outlined in greater detail here by NCGA legislative staff. The new law also increases next year’s funding for the program to $625 million (previously $415.54 million), which will continue to automatically increase each year until reaching $825 million in FY 2032-33 and thereafter.

While some Republican leaders, such as Rep. Tricia Ann Cotham (R-Mecklenburg), who currently chairs the House K-12 Education and Education Appropriations Committees, touted the override of HB 10 as a “great day for students in North Carolina,” many public education groups, including NCASA, have expressed concern over the bill’s passage into law. NCASA Executive Director Katherine Joyce shared, “The passage of this massive voucher expansion plan into law marks a dark day in both the history and future of North Carolina’s public schools.” She continued, “This expanded voucher program will siphon students and funding from our already under-funded public schools, yet many of their operating costs will remain steady, forcing them to ask their counties to spend more to ensure student services are not reduced.”

In addition to the significant new funding provided for the private school voucher program, S.L. 2024-55 also includes $24.7 million in recurring funds for the “NC Personal Education Student Accounts (PESAs) for Children With Disabilities Program,” which would also automatically increase each year until reaching approximately $83 million in FY 2032-33 and thereafter. Lastly, the bill also includes $95 million in recurring funds for the Average Daily Membership (ADM) Contingency Reserve to support K-12 student enrollment in growing public school units (PSUs), as previously requested by NCASA and other groups.

Despite the significant amount of new funding provided for the private school voucher program in HB 10, NC lawmakers did not include any additional transparency or accountability provisions for private schools accepting these funds, making the Opportunity Scholarship Program one of the largest, yet least publicly accountable private school voucher programs in the country. While it would be extremely difficult to reduce funding already provided for the program, many public education advocacy groups, including NCASA, are already considering next steps for reducing the negative impact of this program on our state’s K-12 public schools. “Although the new voucher law calls for automatic annual increases in funding, NCASA will seek a moratorium on that expansion and to add more transparency and accountability to the program,” Joyce continued.

While NCASA is disappointed by the NCGA’s actions this week to prioritize private school voucher expansion over the numerous remaining needs for our public schools, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to our members who took the time to share their concerns about the proposal with their elected officials. “We thank the local superintendents, principals, and other administrators who joined with us in speaking out against voucher expansion,” said Katherine Joyce. “We hope our members will join with us in 2025 and beyond to seek additional law changes to reduce this program’s negative impact on public schools and the students we serve.”

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