RALEIGH — Governor Roy Cooper expressed strong opposition on Thursday to the North Carolina Republican plan to allocate millions of dollars for private school vouchers, arguing that the funds should instead go to public schools.
At a press conference, Cooper, joined by Democratic legislative leaders including Rep. Robert Reives, Sen. Dan Blue, Sen. Michael Garrett, Sen. Lisa Grafstein, Rep. Sarah Crawford, and Rep. Cynthia Ball, criticized the Republican proposal to spend hundreds of millions on private school vouchers. He called this move “disastrous” for public schools and stressed the need for increased funding for teachers’ salaries.
Robeson County has seven private schools, with only 2% of the county’s students enrolled in them, according to privateschoolreview.com.
Republican legislators are returning to Raleigh to take hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars away from public schools and give it to wealthy families through private school vouchers, Cooper said. This would harm our public schools and the future of our state. They should focus on investing in public education to ensure teachers get the pay raise they deserve.
The General Assembly is set to reconvene on Monday. According to Cooper’s office, the plan to expand private school vouchers would introduce $625 million in new funding this year.
Cooper’s office highlighted that expanding vouchers would negatively affect rural counties in North Carolina, where private education options are limited and public schools are crucial to the community. More than a quarter of North Carolina’s counties — all rural — have no or only one private school participating in the voucher program. Diverting funds to urban areas deepens the resource gap and diminishes educational opportunities for rural students, the statement said.
Private schools receiving vouchers are not regulated and are not accountable to taxpayers. They do not have to report student performance, serve all students equally, or employ licensed teachers.
Public schools, which educate over 84% of students, are struggling with insufficient funding. North Carolina ranks near the bottom in K-12 funding, spending nearly $5,000 less per student than the national average. The state also ranks 38th in teacher pay, according to Cooper’s office.