The North Carolina Supreme Court’s ruling last week that opportunity scholarships are not unconstitutional clears the way for the GOP-controlled State Legislature to further dilute public education. Those who support public schools increasingly find themselves on the opposite side of the political aisle from those who control the state budget.
Watching support and funding for public schools become such a politically polarizing issue is nearly as sad as seeing its damaging effect on the quality of public education.
The long-fought battle over opportunity scholarships, commonly referred to as “vouchers,” effectively ended last week with the Supreme Court’s ruling. More than 1,200 students in the state, including 13 in Pitt County, are now cleared to receive as much as $4,200 each to enroll in private schools.
There is no doubt that those few students receiving vouchers can benefit from the educational opportunities afforded them through the program. And there is no doubt that the vast majority of public school students will neither qualify for nor benefit from the program.
Those certainties cast major doubt on any lasting benefit this program will contribute to the greater good of public education.
“This is a major paradigm shift for the State of North Carolina for how we’re looking at K-12 education in our state,” Darrell Allison, president of Parents for Education Freedom, said in response to last week’s ruling. “We’re trying to make sure every single child has the best options available to make it.”
This is where the concept of “opportunity scholarships” falls on its face. The program’s goal is for “every single child” to have the best options available, but the great majority of children will have only one option: public schools.
Allison and other proponents of vouchers have said the system does not shift money away from public schools. That theory is about to be tested. This ruling and the Legislature’s earlier move to expand charter schools does indeed signal a paradigm shift — one undeniably weighted against public schools.
Pitt County Superintendent Ethan Lenker often cites the fact that public schools must accept every child no matter what. The fact that owners of private schools in this state can now receive public dollars without falling under that student-acceptance mandate — as well as many others — should give every taxpayer pause.
Support for public education should not be a partisan issue, but it has become one nonetheless. That could work to the benefit of those students and their families who are left with no choice but to remain in the public schools. They are the majority by far.
