Last winter, Page High School in Greensboro shut down for several days after its HVAC system broke down. This meant that the school went without heating during one of the major snowstorms that hit North Carolina last year. Page couldn’t fix the HVAC quickly, both due to years of financial issues and the fact that the system was a mess from long neglect and cheap workmanship. Classes were held on Zoom. Page is a Title 1 school, meaning it receives federal funding to support its large percentage of low-income students (in the last two years, 76% of Page families were low-income). I went to Page, and the financial challenges it continues to face, and the consequences they have for the quality of learning at the school, worry me deeply—especially as North Carolina’s private school voucher policies threaten to make those challenges even worse.
A technician described the current HVAC system at Page as “a pot of spaghetti,” all matted together and gummed up. Guilford County School Board At-Large Member Alan Sherouse compared this description of the state of the HVAC to public education generally at a school board meeting: “if [this is] true of an HVAC system, how true is that of the even larger issues in public education? And it comes from these enormous things like years of underfunding and neglect and failure to prioritize.” With this metaphor, Mr. Sherouse rather perfectly described the issues I have been thinking a lot about regarding education funding, not just in Guilford County, but in North Carolina at large. These problems are not only the result of long-term neglect—they’re being made worse by new state policies. In particular, North Carolina’s rapidly expanding private school voucher program is draining resources and students from the very public schools already struggling to stay afloat.
I am proud to have grown up attending North Carolina’s public schools, but I am also not afraid to admit that they are a mess. From elementary school on, my peers and I took classes in ancient school buildings with leaky ceilings, mold, and plumbing and heating issues. We dealt with overcrowded, chaotic classroom environments that our overworked teachers struggled to control. Behavioral issues and fights constantly sprung up in these environments and made learning challenging. I am passionate about the value of public schooling, but I am also adamant that public school conditions in North Carolina are egregious, and need to be improved.
While North Carolina public schools have long been underfunded and neglected, the new taxpayer-funded private school voucher program that became universally available to North Carolina families in 2023 is only making the challenges faced by our public school system more appalling.
I’d like to talk about North Carolina’s voucher program, and what it means for NC’s public schools, about which I care so deeply. Let’s start with a brief history of the policy.
In 2013, the North Carolina General Assembly created the Opportunity Scholarship Program to help low-income public school students dissatisfied with their public school experience afford private school tuition. To do so, the Opportunity Scholarship created taxpayer-funded private school “vouchers.” In 2023, the General Assembly passed SB 406 and HB 823, drastically expanding the voucher program by eliminating income requirements to receive vouchers, thereby allowing even the wealthiest families to qualify for vouchers. These bills also removed the requirement that students receiving the vouchers have been previously enrolled in public school. It is now legal for extremely affluent families in my hometown to use taxpayer money to send their kindergarteners to private school.
Keep in mind that public schools are funded by student enrollment. For each enrolled student, North Carolina public schools currently receive an average of $7,500 in state funding to cover various expenses, like teacher salaries, curricular materials, and transportation. Every wealthy family who sends a child to private school on a voucher takes $7,500 away from the educational resources for less affluent children remaining in the public school system. A 2022 study by the North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management examined the fiscal impact of the (then proposed, now enacted) expansion of the Opportunity Scholarships Program on public school systems. The report predicted that public schools could lose anywhere from $101.9 to $305.7 million, and some counties, particularly rural and low-wealth counties, could see as much as an 8% decline in state funding for their public schools. NC’s public schools need more funding while vouchers draw money away.
The 2024-25 school year was the first in which vouchers were universally available. A report by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction found that 87 percent of new school vouchers in 2024-25 went to families who had never attended a public school. In just that year, the program’s applications and expenses rose astronomically: taxpayer-funded tuition payments for the 2024-25 school year are more than double what they were in 2023-24, and expenditures on tuition vouchers exceeded $431 million.
You can probably guess where this is going. In the first year of universal voucher availability, many private schools sharply increased their tuition rates, with several raising rates to match the voucher amounts. There is also evidence of schools taking advantage of the voucher program by giving admissions preference to families who applied for vouchers or requiring families to apply for a voucher as part of the school’s admissions process. At this point, who is the private school voucher program even helping? I’d put forth that it is decidedly not the low-income families who have kids struggling in the North Carolina public schools, as was the (ostensible) original mission of the Opportunity Scholarship program.
I also do not completely disagree with the theory behind private school vouchers. Some students and families have a real need for different learning environments, and I like the idea that some of those costs can be offset by the government. However, I don’t like what the voucher program in North Carolina has become. I don’t like that wealthy families who have never sent their children to private school can utilize these vouchers, taking money and students away from public schools. I don’t like that these vouchers are contributing to an increase in education inequality and a lack of diversity in our schools. I don’t like that we are diverting money to private schools while my high school had to be shut down because we couldn’t afford to fix our heating system.
Overwhelmingly, North Carolina adults dislike the voucher program, a WRAL poll found. This unpopularity is worsening already widespread dissatisfaction with North Carolina’s public schools. This is a big problem. We need to support, utilize, and have trust in our public schools in order for them to operate well. It’s a vicious cycle: if fewer parents trust public schools, fewer will send their kids there. The schools will therefore remain struggling, unable to gain the support and advocacy they need from families to create better conditions.
In my neighborhood at home, in conversations with my teachers, people seem to be questioning the efficacy and value of the voucher program. The general sentiment seems to be exasperation: why, with NC’s public schools in such crisis, are students, and therefore money, being taken away?
Experts, like education scholars, advocacy groups, and other stakeholders in North Carolina’s education systems, are critical of private school vouchers. The North Carolina General Assembly’s K-12 Education Committee should consider the concerns these groups have about the lack of evidence for academic improvement as well as the exacerbation of inequities and the harmful effects of the private school voucher program on North Carolina’s public education system.
Here’s the crux of the issue: there is no conclusive evidence that attending private schools using vouchers improves North Carolina students’ academic performance. Some studies even suggest that the private schools which students attend with vouchers provide weaker academics. I think a lot of this can be attributed to the fact that private schools are not held to the same academic and curricular standards as public schools, and do not provide comparable or standardized reporting of attendance, standardized test scores, and graduation rates. This limits external academic oversight, which I argue is necessary for strong and standardized education, no matter whether it’s private or public. In Louisiana, research teams found highly negative academic impacts from traditional vouchers, with persisting declines.
All North Carolina public schools are required to be responsible with taxpayer dollars. They must have transparent budgets and decision-making that adheres to open meeting and public record laws. North Carolina’s private schools are not subject to these same standards. Even though vouchers send taxpayer dollars to these private institutions, the public has little ability to assess the fiscal management of taxpayer dollars or hold private governing bodies accountable. I do not disagree with the point posited by private school-advocates that more latitude with curriculum and funding in schools is a good thing. However, this latitude must be supported by requirements in place for all schools, no matter if they are private or public.
Using taxpayer money to fund private schools exacerbates inequalities already at the heart of public schooling North Carolina. New data from a study by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction has confirmed that North Carolina school voucher expansion disproportionately benefits wealthy private school families. According to the North Carolina Education Assistance Authority, 20 percent of this year’s new voucher recipients are from families in the highest income bracket.
There is also an obvious racial element. Since 2014, the demographics of the student population using vouchers have changed dramatically, shifting from a slim majority of Black recipients (51%) in 2014-15 to a substantial majority of white recipients (73%) in 2024-25. The voucher program was originally started to help lower-income and minority families afford alternative education options for their children. The evidence suggests—disturbingly—that it has strayed from its goal.
Realistically, North Carolina will not completely eliminate universal private school vouchers any time soon. That isn’t politically viable: vouchers were universalized so recently that it would be difficult to overturn, and Republicans control both the state House and Senate. Unfortunately, ideology is shaping the politics of this issue: with the right devoted to the free market, there is no surprise that they believe that private schools are inherently superior. Additionally, they fear their kids becoming indoctrinated by liberal curricula in public schools. Private school curricula are easier for parents and those in the school community to influence. Still, all North Carolina policymakers should pay attention to the voucher program’s at best mixed report card so far, and start considering other policy options.
A couple of key reforms can be made to minimize the damage of the policy. The Public School Forum of NC, a nearly 40-year-old nonpartisan advocacy group for public schools, emphasizes the need to increase and standardize accountability and transparency measures of voucher-accepting private schools, to move into line with their public counterparts. I agree with this. If private schools accept public dollars, they should be required to subscribe to the same rules governing public schools. Private schools can still teach and function differently, as might suit some students better and is the reason for the program, but they should not be exempt from minimal standards to ensure that they adequately support students. North Carolina should put in place anti-discrimination measures, teacher accreditation requirements, reporting of data on applicable state standardized tests, and accurate reporting of student enrollment data for private schools that accept vouchers.
North Carolina policymakers can look to other states for guidance on this option. Florida, another state with universal school vouchers, is an excellent example. In Florida, for private schools to be eligible to accept vouchers, they must meet an extensive set of requirements that include compliance with national anti-discrimination provisions and demonstration of fiscal soundness. Additionally, Florida’s participating schools must employ teachers who hold baccalaureate or higher degrees and have at least three years of teaching experience. Florida also requires its participating private schools to administer state-approved, nationally normed tests so that student success data may be easily attained. Studies have found that these changes have improved education in Florida, showing that when there is adequate standardization and oversight, private school vouchers do seem to work.
North Carolina should implement these requirements, full stop. They are simple and would increase accountability and confidence in the private institutions accepting taxpayer money, protecting our state’s students and facilitating their success. The mandating of testing data would increase opportunity for oversight, which should be necessary in all schools receiving public funds.
Another policy option is to invest more of NC’s total budget into the school system. NC’s public schools are in dire need of financial support, as the Page HVAC debacle illustrates. And it isn’t only my high school, or my county. Nationally, North Carolina spends nearly $5,000 less per student than the national average, ranking 48th in the country and 49th in funding effort, or the amount of spending on public education as a percentage of the state’s economy. North Carolina also ranks 43rd in public school teaching salary, and widely reported low job satisfaction and challenging working conditions are causing many teachers to leave public schools at alarming rates.
These statistics reveal part of the reason why many North Carolinians are so dissatisfied with the Opportunity Scholarship Program. We know our public schools are bad, we know our kids are struggling, especially low-income kids with limited familial support who do not have the knowledge or access to advocate for themselves in the public schools, or even know about the voucher program option.
This additional funding should target the most neglected areas of the state’s education system: teacher pay, facilities maintenance, and safe, functional learning environments. Given the challenges facing North Carolina’s schools, prioritizing these fundamental needs is essential to attract and retain qualified educators and ensure all students can learn in conditions that foster success.
I am so grateful to have gone to public school my entire life, especially in my early education years.
Public school taught me to make friends with peers who come from completely different backgrounds than my own—different family arrangements, different resources, different lived experiences. Public school introduced me to the real world at a young age. I think it gave me a lot of empathy, and class and social consciousness. I wouldn’t trade these perspectives for anything.
While the intent behind North Carolina’s voucher program isn’t inherently wrong—families wanting more options for their children is understandable—the impact has been disastrous. The policy has deepened inequality, drained already scarce public school funding, and eroded trust in a system that desperately needs rebuilding, not abandonment. Good intentions don’t excuse harmful outcomes.
I continue to believe that public education is priceless. North Carolina must confront its dismal rankings and renew its commitment to students and teachers alike. If other states can invest meaningfully in learning, North Carolina can—and must—do the same.
by Anna Vannoy
