Fact-Checking Josh Stein’s Criticism of the Opportunity Scholarship Program: Part Two

• During a recent interview, Governor-elect Josh Stein said there’s no law to stop the Opportunity Scholarship Program from discriminating against students and the program lacks a testing requirement to evaluate its impact
• North Carolina state law flatly contradicts Stein’s case on both counts
• Stein’s criticism reflects a reckless ignorance of the law by someone whose job is defending and enforcing North Carolina law

As discussed in the previous brief, Attorney General Josh Stein, the next governor of North Carolina, issued several criticisms of the Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) on Spectrum News’ Capital Tonight program. Disturbingly, Stein’s criticisms went beyond policy disagreement and strayed into outright falsehoods.

The previous brief catalogued the first few myths Stein stated in the interview posted here, and this brief discusses the next ones.

In the next part of the interview (see timestamp 0:51–1:17), Stein claims:

There is no rule that these schools not discriminate against students. There is no requirement that we have any sense any evaluation to whether this money makes any difference at all. In many states where they’ve gone this way, student learning has decreased, the kids who went from the public to the private schools, actually lost knowledge. There is no testing requirement of any sort on these private schools so that we know whether we’re getting any return on the investment that they are taking from public taxpayer dollars.

What are we to make of Stein’s claims here?

Myth: There’s No Law to Prevent OSP Schools from Discriminating

The attorney general for North Carolina should know North Carolina law. Stein ought to know that the law governing nonpublic schools who accept Opportunity Scholarship grant recipients explicitly forbids them from discriminating.

North Carolina General Statutes (NCGS) § 115C.562.5(cl) forbids nonpublic schools from “discriminat[ing] with respect to the categories listed in 42 U.S.C. § 2000d, as that statute read on January 1, 2014” (federal law that prohibits “exclusion from participation in, denial of benefits of, and discrimination under federally assisted programs on ground of race, color, or national origin”). This law referenced in North Carolina General Statutes 115C.562.5 (cl) makes it illegal for any nonpublic school to discriminate on the basis of race, color, or national origin. 

Again, Josh Stein’s statement strains credulity.

Myth: There Is No Testing Requirement for OSP Schools

Stein’s claim of “no testing requirement of any sort” on OSP schools is also flat wrong and flies in the face of North Carolina law. NCGS § 115C-562.5.(a)(4) requires that schools that admit OSP students to administer a nationally standardized test at least once a year to all students in grades three and higher. Schools must report to parents on the academic progress of students, including test scores. Moreover, schools must also report graduation rates of OSP students.

The law goes further:

For grades four through seven, the nationally standardized test or other equivalent measurement selected must measure achievement in the areas of English grammar, reading, spelling, and mathematics. For grades nine, 10, and 12 [the law requires administering the ACT in grade 11], the nationally standardized test or other equivalent measurement selected must measure either (i) achievement in the areas of English grammar, reading, spelling, and mathematics or (ii) competencies in the verbal and quantitative areas.

The point of such specificity in law regarding testing requirements is to be able to make comparisons between OSP students and other students and to gauge academic progress.

It should also be noted that the Department of Educational Leadership, Policy, and Human Development at North Carolina State University has published eight reports in the last several years evaluating the Opportunity Scholarship Program. The reports covered such topics as “Parents’ Perspectives” (Report #2), “A Profile of Voucher Applicants” (Report #3), “Test Score Impact” (Report #4), and “Competitive Pressure: How Private School Choice Influenced the Public-School Environment” (Report #8).

How did OSP students do on test score impact? A 2020 report for new Opportunity Scholarship students revealed modest positive outcomes in math and language. The report found no effect on reading scores. Results for students already in the program were statistically significant in language scores only. Despite the research showing positive outcomes for OSP students, Stein ignored it. 

Myth: Students in OSP Schools Learn Less and Lose Knowledge

In his claim that student learning for those moving from traditional public to private schools via the OSP has decreased, Stein seems to be saying that Opportunity Scholarships do not improve student performance. Once again, Stein appears at best to be cherry-picking his data.

A meta-analysis of nearly 190 studies on the impact of education choice looked at academic performance, parental satisfaction, test scores, educational attainment, civic values, school safety and racial integration. What did they find?

• Positive effects — 84 percent of school choice studies showed a positive effect in one or more of those categories, 10 percent showed no impact, and just 6 percent showed a negative effect.

• Improved test scores — There were 17 studies in the analysis addressing that question. Of those, 11 found that vouchers improved test scores for at least some students, four had no effect, and three found vouchers had a negative effect for some students.

• Positive educational attainment — One study evaluating seven different voucher or scholarship programs found that five of them had a “positive” effect on educational attainment for some or all the students. Two programs had no discernible effect. Not one of the studies found 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 (one study found both positive and negative effects, and as such is counted twice).

• Impact on public school students’ test scores — Out of 29 studies that evaluated school choice programs’ impact on public school students’ test scores, 26 found a positive effect, one study found no visible effect, and two found a negative effect. The results strongly suggest that competition from schools of choice aided by scholarship programs compel public schools to improve results or risk losing more students.

The discussion about the Opportunity Scholarship Program should be an important part of gubernatorial debate over education policy in North Carolina. Josh Stein does not support the Opportunity Scholarship Program. That’s his right, and he has every right to express his beliefs.

Stein’s beliefs, however, do not give him the right to keep repeating statements that simply are not true. His statements reflect an astoundingly reckless disregard for and ignorance of the law for someone who is North Carolina’s attorney general and who will soon assume the highest office in the state.