NC school vouchers—Using tax dollars to discriminate against students & families!

As recent reporting highlights, “North Carolina now subsidizes the tuition cost for the majority of private students.” In the 2024-25 school year, the state private K-12 tuition subsidy topped $432 million. Current appropriations earmark $731 million for state voucher programs next year.

These voucher programs require virtually no accountability for how the funds are spent, whether the schools provide adequate instructional programs, or whether they discriminate against types of students or their families. As a result, taxpayers are left without even the most rudimentary understanding of the private schools benefiting from unprecedented generosity of majority lawmakers in the NC General Assembly.

Our new report uncovers hundreds of examples of how voucher-accepting private schools screen applicants to secure their desired student population. Unlike public schools that accept all students, many private schools employ discriminatory practices to select only students who conform to their religious beliefs or don’t pose instructional or behavioral challenges.

The policies range from exclusions based on religious beliefs of students and family members, to academic performance, disability status, and whether an applicant or family member is part of the LGBTQ+ community.

Some schools also require students and families to sign a “lifestyle policy” that extends to activities and behaviors of family members and associates. Not meeting the requirements may result in a rejected application or the student being expelled from the school. And unlike public schools, many private schools have no formal process for questioning or appealing these decisions.

Our research focused only on schools that received $100,000 or more in taxpayer-funded tuition payments during the 2024-25 school year. We found 21 schools that had no website and no public source of information about the school beyond name and address. Together, these schools received more than $6 million from the state in 2024-25.

The report recommends several requirements that the North Carolina General Assembly could quickly implement for private schools that receive taxpayer funds. Taxpayers deserve to know how their dollars are being spent.

Read the report as well as an appendix showing discriminatory policies of schools.