Last Friday, Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed House Bill 10, which would have – among other things – fully funded the Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) in order to clear the almost 55,000 students currently on a waiting list for the program.

Cooper’s public comments justifying his veto and in opposition to expanding school choice options for more North Carolina children were unoriginal and, in most cases, easily refuted:

Claim: HB10 takes taxpayer dollars from public schools and gives them to private school vouchers used by wealthy families.

  • OSP does not take money from public schools. Money allotted for OSP is not from the public school budget.  Instead, the OSP budget is administered via the UNC portion of the budget. North Carolina’s public school budget is administered via the Department of Public Instruction. In short, the OSP does not divert money from public schools because it is funded through a different part of the state budget.
  • OSP is not a program for the wealthy.  The governor’s statement clearly ignores OSP’s preference for helping families with low and moderate incomes. The program uses a sliding scale in which lower income families receive larger scholarship amounts. The average awards range from $7,460 for students in lower income tiers to $3,360 for students in higher tiers.
  • Who is “wealthy” under the Governor’s definition? Are households earning above $115,000 – the Tier 2 threshold for a family of four – wealthy?  Two teachers earning the state average of $56,559 approach that figure.  Are they wealthy under Gov. Cooper’s definition?   

Claim: Studies show that private school vouchers do not improve student performance.

  • A thorough examination of the research shows otherwise.
  • Nearly 190 studies on the impact of education choice were recently reviewed in a meta-analysis.  Studies looked at academic performance, parental satisfaction, test scores, educational attainment, civic values, school safety and racial integration.  What did they find?
    • 84 percent of school choice studies showed a positive effect in one or more of these categories, 10 percent showed no impact, while just 6 percent showed a negative effect.
    • Do vouchers/scholarships raise test scores?  Of an analysis of 17 studies, 11 found that vouchers improved test scores for at least some students, 4 had no effect and 3 found vouchers had a negative effect for some students.
    • Educational Attainment – An Analysis of seven voucher/scholarship programs found that five of these programs had a “positive” effect for some or all of the students on educational attainment. Two had no discernible effect. None of the studies had a negative outcome on students.
    • Parental Satisfaction – Out of 33 studies evaluating parental satisfaction, 31 found positive satisfaction, one found no visible effect on satisfaction, and only two found a negative impact on parental satisfaction.
  • Public School Student Test Scores – Out of 29 studies that evaluated school choice programs’ impact on public school student test scores, 26 found a positive effects, one study found no visible effect, and two found a negative effect.

Claim: North Carolina’s voucher program has “no strings attached” and has the least accountability in the country.

  • “Accountable” to whom? Schools of choice are ultimately accountable to the families of their students. If the schools are not living up to a family’s expectations, the family can remove the student and send them elsewhere.
  • Who is accountable for failing traditional public schools? Gov. Cooper suggests that traditional public schools have high levels of accountability. However, only about half of eighth graders are reading at grade level, while less than half of the same population (46.7%) are performing at grade level proficiency in math. Meanwhile, less than half of third graders can read at grade-level proficiency. Who has been held accountable for these dismal results? Who has been fired? The answer is nobody. Public schools being held accountable is a fairy tale.
  • OSP schools actually do have a lot of strings attached (i.e. compliance requirements):
    • Schools that accept OSP recipients are required to annually administer nationally standardized tests of their choosing to students in grades three through eight.Private schools must comply with the same health, safety, and nondiscrimination statutes that public schools must meet.
    • OSP schools are required to administer a nationally standardized test — or an equivalent test — annually in specific subject areas for grades K–8 and also grades 9–12. Test results must be submitted to the state annually.OSP schools are required to provide parents/guardians with an annual written explanation of the student’s academic progress, including the student’s scores on standardized achievement tests.
    • In addition, schools that enroll more than 25 OSP students are required to report the aggregate standardized test score performance of OSP students.
  • On the financial side, schools that enroll 70 or more OSP students are required to contract with a certified public accountant for an annual financial review.

Claim: The legislature plans to waste $4 billion of public money over the next decade, hurting rural public schools the most because there are fewer private schools in those areas.

  • Saying this money is a “waste” is an insult to the tens of thousands of children across the state enjoying a school of their choice only because of the legislature’s investment in the Opportunity Scholarship Program. I’m sure the parents who were able to move their child into a school better suited to their children’s unique academic and social needs would not consider this a “waste.”
  • Does more money automatically translate into better public school results? Cooper believes more spending on traditional public schools automatically means improved educational outcomes. That is not the case. For instance, Baltimore City Schools made headlines late last year when it was reported that 13 of their schools had zero students testing proficient in math, while the district spends more than $22,000 per student, one of the highest spending rates in the nation.
  • Saying that OSP hurts rural schools the most because there are fewer private schools in those areas is nonsensical. If there are no, or few, private schools in a rural county, there will be no, or few, students moving from traditional public schools to private. Any such impact would be much more minimal, contrary to Cooper’s claim.

Claim: A year of OSP funding could “give teachers an 8.5% raise and a $1,500 signing bonus, hire more counselors, and teachers’ assistants that are desperately needed, and still have a whole lot of money left over”

  • This is not true. Gov. Cooper’s own FY 2024-25 budget proposal breaks down the costs:
    • 8.5% raise for teachers:  $323 million annually, recurring
    • $1,500 signing bonus for teachers earning less than $75k salary: $251 million non-recurring
    • Hire 700 teaching assistants for grades K-3:  $30 million annually, recurring
    • TOTAL: $604 million (of which $353 is recurring) (total does not include counselors, which Cooper also mentions)
  • HB 10 would spend: $248 million to clear the backlog of students, and $215 million more for future years. The total increase in spending in HB 10 is $463 million, well short of Cooper’s proposition