Pending bills in the NC General Assembly would vastly increase the funding for private school vouchers. Millions of dollars in North Carolina are spent each year on two school voucher programs (see our fact sheet for details) using taxpayer funds to pay private school tuition. This year, new bills in the North Carolina General Assembly are moving forward that vastly expand the Opportunity Scholarship (OS) voucher program. Senate Bill 406 and its twin, House Bill 823, remove family income eligibility requirements and prior public school attendance requirements, thereby allowing any student in the state to receive taxpayer dollars for private school tuition with no regard for financial need.
In this report, we highlight a few of the many exclusionary policies used by NC private schools to determine who they admit into their schools. There were 544 private schools receiving school vouchers last year totalling $133,872,245 taxpayer dollars. This review is limited to 163 private schools receiving $300,000 or more for FY 2022-23 totaling $92,778,897 dollars.
For these schools, we compiled a complete list of discriminatory policies with links. The list highlights how widespread discriminatory practices are among NC private schools receiving voucher funds.
We call on North Carolina lawmakers to abandon this voucher expansion and invest tax dollars in North Carolina’s public schools that serve ALL children. In addition, we urge lawmakers to require private schools that receive state tax dollars, to follow all state and federal non-discrimination laws in their admittance process and school policies.
