The conversation began when taskforce member and Wilmington Mayor ProTem Clifford Barnett said, “With the new legislation, have we given any thought to how that's going to affect our schools, especially with the folks that have resources and may want to take their kids out.”
Barnett was referring to the legislature removing all income limits to access the Opportunity Scholarship program, which allows families to spend public money once earmarked for public schools on private school tuition. Removing the limits means that families who make over $618,048 can still qualify for up to $3,360; scholarship amounts range from $3,000 to $7,000.
Legislators have added $250 million over the next two budget years for the program, and over the next ten years, there could be anywhere from $1.9 to $4 billion of public money diverted to this fund.
Because of this influx of funding for charter and private schools, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper recently declared 2024 ‘The Year of Public Schools.’ He said he’ll be visiting public schools throughout the year to show the “positive impact of a well-funded public education system on the state’s economy and communities” while “spolight[ing] the dangers of underfunding the schools while pouring millions into an unregulated private school voucher program that sends taxpayer money to private academies.”
Senate Majority Leader Phil Berger defended the voucher program by saying that didn’t make sense for the money to stay with public schools if students are leaving for a private education.
In addition to losing education funding to private schools, public schools will also have to tighten their budgets when students go to charter schools.
Competing with charters
The idea to cost share with charters has supporters with some of the members of the New Hanover County School Board. Last budget cycle, Chief Financial Officer Ashley Sutton asked the board to sign a resolution in response to House Bill 219, which would make significant increases to charter budgets, mandating that the school system would have to share about 7% of any revenue they receive — and that charters could tap into their fund balance — which now has a $10 million deficit, according to Superintendent Dr. Charles Foust.
Board members Josie Barnhart, Pat Bradford, and Melissa Mason didn’t support the resolution to keep that money within the district’s coffers, but members Pete Wildeboer, Hugh McManus, Stephanie Walker, and Stephanie Kraybill did. Nonetheless, the state bill passed — overriding Cooper’s veto.
Now that increased competition has ensued between public, charters, and private schools for funding, New Hanover County Schools Chief Academic Officer Dr. Patrice Faison said the school system is feeling the pressure, and that now they’re pivoting to selling the opportunities and special programs the district offers.
“So it's about telling our story, and making sure people realize the opportunities we have in our public schools. I don't think sometimes they do. I think that the best that we can do is say, ‘Hey, if you go here to Ashley [High School], you're going get pharmacy tech, or we're going have this virtual autopsy table at this school,” Faison said.
As for New Hanover County charter schools, Faison said that the district’s public schools are mostly outperforming them.
“I would ask parents to go and look at charter performance. They will be shocked; they're not doing what you think they're doing,” she said.
In terms of rankings from schooldigger.com, which pulls data from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI), last year, 12 elementary schools ranked higher than the Cape Fear Center of Inquiry (CFCI) charter school. However, at the middle school level only two public schools — Murray and Noble — rank higher than CFCI.
It’s far more difficult to compare public schools against private schools. While some private schools do share metrics of students' success they aren’t required to release data the way public and charter schools are.
Another factor that puts public schools at a disadvantage is the state’s funding model.
Faison highlighted the issue that if a family decides to move to a charter, “the [public] money stays with them, and a lot of times, you'd be surprised of how many times a kid goes to a charter and then they're coming back because remember, a charter school does not have to keep you.”
NCDPI bases school funding mainly on 20-day ‘headcounts’ or ‘average daily membership (ADM).’ That means a student can go to a charter school, attend class for several weeks (at least up until the ‘headcount’ day), and then transfer to a public school — but leave their funding behind at the charter school. In other words, the charter school gets a year’s worth of funding for that student, even though they’re now going to a public school, which is obligated to educate them, and in some cases provide transportation, food, and other services.
How charter and public schools stack up
During the meeting, there was some debate about the quality of education provided by charter schools, which highlighted the difference between anecdotal and data-driven evaluations.
Natalie English, CEO of the Chamber of Commerce and a member of the task force, said she wanted to make it clear that some charter schools are being successful. She referenced Charlotte’s Sugar Creek Charter School’s performance — although her experience was from seven years ago.
“There are some schools that get created and they are delivering on the mission. And it wasn't affluent kids going to this school. This was a charter school in the middle of high-poverty neighborhoods; they were educating high-poverty kids and doing it really well. So let's be fair, charter schools can be unbelievably effective. And some are not,” English said.
William Buster, president of the New Hanover Endowment and a member of the task force, said he wanted to push English a little more on her statement.
“I once told the charter school leader who was going to go speak to the U.S. Senate Committee on this, that they were going to go bash public schools. And I said, ‘This is not a zero-sum.’ What the issue is, that whoever you're talking to, is the person who's going to tell you whether or not charter school is great, right?” Buster said. “I think what we have to recognize is that we're talking about an educational system, and we need to make charter schools a part of the system.”
But Buster did say that charters are not mandated to offer things that the public system does like transportation and meals. He then said that the data is clear, that charters are not consistently performing better than public ones.
Shortly thereafter, English said that she agreed with Buster’s assessment.
When looking at New Hanover County’s charter schools, public schools are doing better on end-of-grade tests. However, charter schools both statewide and nationally are starting to catch up.
Historically, public schools have done better, but a recent national study from Standford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes shows that from 2015 to 2019 “the typical charter school student in the national sample [includes data from 18 states, North Carolina was one of them] had reading and math gains that outpaced their peers in the traditional public schools (TPS) they otherwise would have attended.”
In terms of achievement in North Carolina, EdNC reports that from 2019-2022, data shows that they are performing “similarly.” This conclusion is based on school performance grades and school growth metrics.
In terms of school report card grades, 27% of the state’s charters received a grade of A or B last year. For public schools, it was only 23% that have this designation. However, by looking at the comparison between schools ‘meeting’ or ‘exceeding growth’ — public schools are doing slightly better than charters.
NHC public and charter school performance by Ben Schachtman on Scribd
