A bill to expand the Opportunity Scholarship Program passed the N.C. House, 69-49, on Tuesday, April 13, following a floor debate that focused on accountability.
Created in 2013, Opportunity Scholarships are designed to help families who would otherwise struggle to afford private-school tuition but who want to leave their locally zoned public school.
House Bill 32 would remove the current scholarship cap of $4,200 per year and substitute a formula allowing scholarship recipients to share in 70% of the funding the state sets aside per pupil. That figure eventually scales up to 80%.
Students would qualify for up to $4,610 a year and then ratcheting up to $5,269, based on current per-pupil funding rates. The bill adds an extra financial kicker in the form of permitting local school districts to allocate an additional $1,000 in local funding per scholarship recipient, on top of the state funding.
Both House and Senate leaders have now introduced bills (H32 in the House, S671 in the Senate) overhauling North Carolina’s three voucher programs in an apparent effort to see who can do more to dismantle public schools. Both bills are long, complex, and would further subsidize students in unregulated private schools at the expense of their peers in inclusive public schools.
Currently, North Carolina has three voucher programs. Both bills would modify all three vouchers.
The first, and by far the largest, is the Opportunity Scholarship program. This program was originally designed to provide vouchers of up to $4,200 to North Carolinians with low incomes (up to 185% of the federal poverty level). Subsequent modifications have increased the income eligibility to 278% of the federal poverty level ($72,705 for a family of four). For this year, the General Assembly appropriated $75 million to the program. Under current law, funding for this voucher is set to increase by $10 million pe
Lawmakers, Cooper again poised to cross swords over Opportunity Scholarships - Carolina Journal carolinajournal.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from carolinajournal.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Letters to editor for Monday, April 5, 2021
Letter writers
Questioning motive
Regarding the Tuesday, March 30, article Pretrial release sought for man linked to DC riot, I have a question for Christopher Worrell and his attorney. I am a nurse and empathize with his health challenges, but he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin s lymphoma in 2007 and needs to protect himself, especially in this pandemic.
So why is being kept in custody more dangerous for his compromised situation than traveling to and from Washington, D.C., and being shown unmasked spraying pepper spray, surrounded by other unmasked people?
Sounds a little hypocritical to me.
Courtesy-CAAC FB page
COLUMBUS, Ind. – State Rep. Ryan Lauer and State Sen. Greg Walker fielded questions at Monday morning’s Third House session, presented by the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce. Most queries were about education.
With regard to an income threshold on school vouchers, Walker said, that while he’s a strong proponent of choice who homeschooled four children, he sees the law of diminishing returns at work such that making funds available to a wider swath of families does not “necessarily create better outcomes.”
With regard to the possibility of fraud in the Education Savings Account program, Lauer said vetting the treasurer’s office prevents that as an issue, saying, “Facts about ESAs in other states don’t bear that out.”