NC governor’s budget would eliminate the state’s school choice program

North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein wants to eliminate the state’s school choice program, one of the nation’s largest, and give more money to public schools, but advocates say that’s unlikely to happen.

Taking a page straight out of his party’s playbook, Stein, a Democrat, proposed ending Opportunity Scholarships for higher-income families immediately but allowing families earning $150,000 or less to use the program until their child finishes high school.

“If we’re serious about the success of North Carolina’s 1.5 million public school students, we should not be taking money away from them to pay for wealthy parents to send their kids to unaccountable private schools,” Stein said in his budget address Tuesday.

He called for investing in public schools “so that they don’t fail,” and for creating choice within the public system through means such as magnet schools.

The governor’s proposal is unlikely to gain traction. Republicans control the General Assembly and have previously overridden Democratic governors on school choice measures.

Stein made similar proposals in his 2025 budget – his first since taking office – but did not gain ground. The state had 80,000 school choice participants at that time; now there are more than 103,000 students in the program.

School choice has expanded rapidly in North Carolina since income limits were lifted in 2023, making the scholarships universal.

The program uses a sliding scale for awards. Lower-income families can receive more than $7,000 per student, with higher-income families receiving less than $3,600.

Stein said most scholarship recipients “never attended a public school,” suggesting many families were already in private education. However, that figure includes students who entered private school in kindergarten.

Stein’s claim that the program is taking money from public schools is also questionable, since the state spends less per school choice student ($5,800) than it does on public school students ($7,500).

Last year, the state saved $10.1 million from students using school choice, which caused one liberal think tank to endorse the program.

“For the foreseeable future, any Republican budget in North Carolina will contain corporate tax cuts and private-school vouchers,” wrote Alexander H. Jones, a policy analyst for Carolina Forward. “Given that Democrats have no realistic power to stop the advance of tax cuts and vouchers, rejecting a strong budget would simply be dogmatic.”

Stein’s proposal would strip $1 billion from school choice to fund public school teacher pay raises and bonuses. It would raise state spending from $33.2 billion to $35.4 billion and cut the state’s $1.1 billion budget surplus by more than half to $500 million.

Corey DeAngelis, a school choice advocate and senior fellow with Americans for Fair Treatment, said Stein’s “political posturing won’t go anywhere.”

“Josh Stein is just carrying water for the arm of the Democratic Party known as the teachers union,” he told The Lion. “Enough is enough – parents deserve school choice, not union bosses calling the shots in Raleigh.” 

DeAngelis also refuted Stein’s “concerns” about private schools.

“Private schools are directly accountable to families unlike government schools. If a family isn’t happy, they walk. That’s real accountability – something Stein and the unions clearly don’t understand.

“If private schools are truly ‘unaccountable’ like Stein claims, then he and the teachers unions should have nothing to worry about. Their panic over school choice tells you everything you need to know.”

He also urged voters “to hold Democrats accountable at the ballot box so they don’t take away their scholarships.”

The state did not pass a budget last year, adding pressure on lawmakers to accomplish that this year. The Legislative session is set to adjourn Aug. 31.

Photo credit: Gov. Josh Stein (Facebook)