Judge rules NC school voucher program unconstitutional
Published August 21, 2014
by Matthew Burns, WRAL, August 21, 2014.
A Superior Court judge on Thursday overturned a state law that awards taxpayer-funded vouchers to low-income families who want to send their children to private or religious schools.
Judge Robert Hobgood ruled that the Opportunity Scholarship program is unconstitutional, upholding legal challenges filed by the North Carolina Association of Educators, the North Carolina School Boards Association and dozens of local school boards.
About 5,500 students applied for the annual grants of up to $4,200 per child, and the first $730,000 in tuition money for more than 360 students was released last Friday.
Hobgood issued a permanent injunction prohibiting any more state funds from being disbursed for vouchers. He said it would be up to the Attorney General's Office to determine how the state would recoup the money handed out last week if the ruling is upheld on appeal.
State lawmakers created the voucher program last year, setting aside $10 million for the Opportunity Scholarships to start in the 2014-15 school year. They added more money to the program in this year's budget to accommodate as many of the applicants as possible.
Voucher supporters have argued that the Opportunity Scholarships program would give low-income parents another educational option when public schools aren't meeting their needs. They also maintained that the state could save money by shifting some students to private schools because of the high per-pupil cost in public schools.
Hobgood ruled, however, that the private schools can discriminate in their admissions and don't have the same curriculum and teacher certification standards as North Carolina's public schools.
Under the long-running Leandro school funding lawsuit, , the General Assembly is required to ensure students receive a sound education, and Hobgood said lawmakers can't delegate that authority to "unregulated private schools" and to parents "who have self-assessed their children to be at risk."
"Appropriating taxpayer funds to unaccountable schools does not accomplish a public purpose," he said.
http://www.wral.com/judge-rules-nc-school-voucher-program-unconstitutional/13911842/
August 21, 2014 at 12:04 pm
Norm Kelly says:
Once again we have the education establishment showing their fear of competition.
In the private sector, competition improves performance, quality, and a host of other improvements that are good for the buying public. However, government institutions abhor competition and believe it increases cost, reduces quality, and is bad for 'self esteem'. All of which is provably false. But government prefers monopolies for themselves cuz then they can't be compared to anything else to determine whether they are performing well or not.
August 21, 2014 at 1:54 pm
Frank Burns says:
Apparently Judge Hobknob did not get the message from the State Supreme Court. I'm sure they will set him straight.
August 21, 2014 at 2:22 pm
Johnny Hiott says:
Remove the judge from office for being illiterate.
