GOP lawmakers hope bigger grants, increased eligibility will attract more families to NC school voucher program

State lawmakers are looking to expand the Opportunity Scholarships voucher program that provides financial help to parents who want to send their children to private or religious schools in North Carolina.

Senate Bill 671 calls for the largest increase in the value of the vouchers in the program's history, from a maximum of $4,200 a year to $5,900.

Sen. Michael Lee, R-New Hanover, said private school tuition has gone up over the years, and increasing the amount of the grant makes it more feasible for families to take advantage of the program. The higher amount would cover up to 90 percent of the tuition cost at a private school, he said.

The Opportunity Scholarships program has had more money than applicants in recent years – about 16,000 students got more than $61 million in vouchers this year – and supporters said they expect the change, along with the pandemic, will attract more interest.

"[During the pandemic], a lot of the traditional public schools just closed, and a lot of charter schools [and] a lot of private schools ended up staying open," Lee said Thursday. "A lot of parents wanted the choice to have their child go to a school to have in-person learning. So, I think that’s part of the driving force of it."

The bill also expands eligibility for the program. Currently, a family of four earning $72,000 a year is eligible, but the proposal would increase that cutoff to $84,000 a year.

Allora Osborne, a senior at North Raleigh Christian Academy, told members of the Senate Education committee on Wednesday that her family moved her there from public school in seventh grade.

"At my [previous] school, I never felt challenged. I was that girl who did all the classwork in the first five minutes and then sat reading the whole time – super-bored," Osborne said.

She is headed to Harvard University in the fall, and she said much of the credit goes to the voucher program that gave her a new opportunity in a new school.

"I’ve met mentors who’ve changed my life, who’ve made me the public speaker that I am today, who’ve pushed my desires, my dreams and my aspiration," she said. "I’ve had so many opportunities that I found just because I was able to move schools. That is how I’m able to be who I am today."

But Tamika Walker Kelly, president of the North Carolina Association of Educators, called the vouchers "a solution in search of a problem," saying there's no evidence that they boost student performance and force improvements at public schools.

"The financial impact of this legislation would be enormous," Walker Kelly said in a statement, noted the estimated $17.6 million annual increase comes on the heels of lawmakers pumping $27.2 million a year into the program last year.

"If the goal of further expanding vouchers is indeed the stated goal of assisting at-risk students, the vast majority of whom still attend public schools, this body should consider a number of other ways to achieve that goal," she said, ticking off a list of programs lawmakers have cut in recent years.