The Opportunity Scholarship program, launched in 2014, was designed to allow education funding to ‘follow the student’ (sometimes called ‘backpack funding’). The program provides a voucher to families for private school tuition; the subsidy’s value represents a portion of the per-student funding the state typically sends to public schools (including charter schools). The voucher amounts are based on income in four tiers, from around $3,500 for the wealthiest families to $7,700 for the lowest-income families.
The program has been touted as giving students, in particular from low-income families, more educational options that ‘aren’t limited by zip code,’ as legislators and advocates for the program have often said.
Last year, the General Assembly approved a significant increase in funding for the scholarships, which cleared a waiting list of families, many of whom were in the wealthier tiers. The increased funding has also notably shifted the demographics of voucher recipients.
For many vouchers, especially the higher tiers, there’s a significant difference between the funding given to families and the average per-student amount given to public schools (around $7,400). Based on the legislation that created the scholarships, the difference between the state and tier allocation — sometimes referred to as a 'reinvestment fund' — should be tracked by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. The intent of the law was to reinvest the difference back into public education, but that part of the law is non-binding, and it’s currently unclear how the legislature will allocate it.
During a candidate forum in October 2024, Republican State Senator Michael Lee said he’d consult NCDPI if they were to reinvest the funds. Lee, who championed the legislation creating the scholarships, said he didn’t want the leftover money to return to the specific public school district where the funding was removed from because “it would create an incentive for people to leave the school, and the school would still be funded because it's not based on the number of kids are in the school.”
New Hanover County voucher data
Last school year, 309 students in New Hanover used the legislature’s voucher program, but fast forward to this year, it’s 1,436. That’s a 365% increase. For context, NHCS reported that 3,687 students in the county attended private schools.
Private schools in Brunswick (106%) and Pender (263%) counties also saw significant gains in students using the vouchers. The state average increase was 144%.
In terms of funding, private schools in New Hanover received $1.8 million last year, but this year, they received $6.2 million, a 244% increase. In Brunswick, those private schools received $2.9 million, and in Pender, $1.1 million. Overall, the state put out $382.8 million in funds this year. Most of that funding went to K-5 students, with progressively less money for students in higher grades.
In New Hanover County, the private schools receiving the most funding through the voucher program were St. Mark Catholic School, getting close to $1.5 million (a 318% increase from last year), Myrtle Grove Christian, with $1.1 million, and Wilmington Christian Academy with $990,582. Providence Preparatory, St. Mary Catholic School, and Coastal Christian High School received over half a million dollars (Carolina Christian Academy was close, with $491,410).
Those receiving over a quarter million are Cape Fear Academy ($353,272), the School of Wonder Wilmington ($274,903), New Horizons Elementary ($267,708), and Friends School of Wilmington ($262,245).
Over the past three years, 20 private schools in the county have taken vouchers — James B. Dudley closed last year, and Innovative Academy did not report any voucher funds this year. About half of these private schools in the county are faith-based, and they are much Whiter than their public system counterpart.
Demographics of the voucher program
According to ProPublica’s database on private school demographics (most recent data from 2021-2022), all of the private schools in New Hanover County for which ProPublica had data were less diverse than New Hanover County Schools.
NHCS's racial demographic makeup for the 2021-2022 school year was 59% White, 18% Black, 16% Hispanic, 5% Multi-racial, and 2% Asian. In comparison, the average of 13 private schools for which there was data was 88% White, 2% Black, 5% Hispanic, 5% Multi-racial, and 4% Asian. Those with White populations exceeding 90% were Providence Preparatory Academy, Waterview Learning, Coastal Christian High School, Hill School, New Horizons Elementary, and Myrtle Grove Christian.
The North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority (NCSEAA) is the body that oversees private schools receiving voucher money. NCSEAA releases demographic data at the state level but not at the county level.
For the current 2024-2025 school year, 74% of voucher recipients were White, followed by 11% Black students; Multi-racial was at 9%, 3% Asian, 1% Native American, and 2% chose not to put down their race. (Note: Hispanic-Latino population is categorized as an ethnicity separate from race. For this category, 11% of the voucher recipients were “Hispanic.”)
According to the 2023 American Community Survey from the Census Bureau for the state, as confirmed by Carolina Demography, the racial make-up of North Carolina’s student-age population (5-19) is 49% White, 21% Black, 18% Latino, 8% Multi-racial, 3% Asian, and 1% Native American. Compared to voucher-use data from NCSEAA, the White student population is over-represented, the Native and Asian populations are fairly represented, and the Multi-racial, Black, and Latino populations are underrepresented.
The demographics of voucher use have also shifted as the program has been expanded.
Based on an analysis by Carolina Demography, the most dramatic shift over the three years of the voucher program has been for Black students. In school year 2022-2023, they accounted for 20% of vouchers; that has now dropped to 11%. Over the same period, the percentage of vouchers going to White students shifted from 61% to 74%.
Another way to look at the data is the increased number of students of different races. Based on data from last year and, following the expansion of the program this year, White students saw an 186% increase (38,209 more students), followed by Asian students (160%) and Multi-racial (102%). The lowest percent increase was for Black students (41% – 2,472 more students).
Again, all populations increased, likely because of the legislature’s move to eliminate income caps and clear those 55,000 middle to upper-class families on the voucher waitlist. The legislature also used to require voucher students to be enrolled in a public school previously.
Private school affordability and Tier 1 families
NCSEAA awards vouchers based on the number of household members in concert with income. For example, a household of four that makes at or under $59,478 (Tier 1) would qualify for $7,686 for this upcoming school year. Tier 2, making up to $118,956, would receive $6,918 per student, followed by Tier 3, households that make $267,651 would get $4,612, and Tier 4, any income above the Tier 3 cap would receive $3,458. The state gives an average of $7,405 per student in NHCS as a point of comparison.
According to WHQR’s analysis of tuition rates at New Hanover County’s private schools that accept vouchers, a four-person household making at or under $59,478 (the lowest tier) would have to come up with additional funds to attend most of these schools.
Although some of these schools offer additional scholarship funding, Tier 1 four-person families would be priced out of most. Out of 18 private schools in New Hanover County, the voucher would only pay for the full amount at Calvary Christian School, Carolina Christian Academy, and the elementary school at Providence Preparatory Academy.
This analysis also did not factor in fees or other special charges, just tuition, so families would have to account for those.
Private schools with the highest tuition rates are mainly non-religiously affiliated, with the most expensive being Cape Fear Academy, Peace Rose Montessori, and Wilmington Academy of the Arts and Sciences. (The Friends School of Wilmington, based in the beliefs of the Quaker denomination, is an exception.)
For example, tuition rates for Cape Fear Academy are around $22,000 for elementary and $25,000 for middle and high school, so Tier 1 families would need additional scholarship amounts worth anywhere between $14,000 and $17,900. Attending Friends School of Wilmington, they would have to come up with between close to $9,000 (elementary) and $10,500 (middle).
Perspectives on the expansion of the voucher program
In the Cape Fear region, in the 2024 election cycle, support for or against the voucher program mainly fell along political lines, with Republican candidates in support claiming this provides families with ‘school choice’ and that tax money should follow the family to their chosen school. Democratic politicians argued the program subsidizes wealthy, White families who were likely already attending or planning to attend private school — and the program diverts money and resources away from public education. They also take issue with public funding going toward religious-based education.
Both national and state trends show that voucher recipients were already in the private school system. Data from Public Schools First NC, as reported by WUNC, shows that in 2022-2023, only 36% switched from a public school to a private one. National data from nine states show that around 70% of voucher families were not planning on attending public school.
A spokesperson for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction said that they are required to report in June how many students who were awarded the scholarships previously attended a public school.
Public discourse around voucher spending can be fraught and emotional, as it can pit public schools against private ones. Some public school families and educators see the program as an attempt to divert resources away from them and claim the system reinforces a society in which people are separated by class, race, and/or religion, which further threatens democratic values. Some also claim the families and politicians who support vouchers tend to denigrate public schools as “failing” and “broken,” despite studies showing this isn’t the case, according to education researcher Dr. Josh Cowen of Michigan State University and the author of The Privateers: How Billionaires Created A Culture War and Sold School Vouchers.
However, Dr. Patrick Wolf of the University of Arkansas has provided studies showing some positive effects of school choice programs. A review of 18 studies from around the county showed eight that found positive impacts for all students, four that found benefits for disadvantaged students, four that showed no impact, and two that showed negative effects. A meta-analysis of studies from around the world also showed students tend to struggle initially as they adjust to new schools, but then perform better than their former peers.
Those supporting the expansion of the voucher program have argued that a quality education for all students is a collective societal goal, just one accomplished through an effectively privatized system. There are also arguments in favor of private schools because some provide smaller class sizes or can focus on a more specialized curriculum, for example, a faith-based one at a religious school or STEM focus at a secular school. Another argument is that some middle- to upper-class families can now, with a several-thousand-dollar subsidy, afford the private education they’ve wanted because the affordability gap was just a few thousand dollars. And, of course, some would argue that families shouldn’t have to spend money on public education if their children aren’t benefitting (although many people without children in the public system also pay taxes and receive no financial return).
WHQR reached out to UNCW’s Watson School of Education on school funding and was told by spokesperson Sydney Bouchelle that no one had sufficient expertise on funding research or the debate affecting educators to comment on the issue.
Kris Nordstrom is a senior policy analyst at the North Carolina Justice Center, a nonprofit dedicated to the “concern of [state residents] with low incomes.” He also spent nearly a decade in the General Assembly’s fiscal research division.
Nostrom, who points to national data around better academic achievement levels of public schools compared to private, state budget deficits caused by voucher programs, negative public opinion surveys, and the failure of ballot voucher measures, thinks maybe there could be a conversation around sending funds to private schools, but the fact that the public system has been historically underfunded compared to other states, it doesn’t make sense now.
“Had the [Leandro] plan been implemented, and we were actually meeting our constitutional obligations to students in traditional public schools, then maybe we could have this conversation about whether or not we also have the capacity to start providing public subsidy to the private school industry, but at a time when we are ranking 49th in school funding effort, and when courts, time after time again show that we're dramatically failing to meet just the bare minimum constitutional needs of students,” he said.
He also disputed the narrative that public school enrollment is dropping; according to Nordstrom, “enrollment has only seen a student enrollment decline of .1% (decrease of 1,703) over the past decade.” NHCS has said their enrollment has remained stagnant over the past three years, hovering close to 25,000 students.
Funding and beneficiaries
Senator Michael Lee, who chairs the Senate Committees on Education and Appropriations, did not respond to requests for an interview, but he did make several statements about the program at a media forum in October 2024.
“We funded 15,000 families with an average of $115,000 annual income for four; I wouldn't consider that a rich family [...]; The whole bucket of money [for the program] is less than 4.5% of the K-12 education budget, less than 4.5%. This allows families to have a choice if their school district where they were zoned to because of their zip code is not working for them,” he said.
Lee’s comments addressed criticism from Democratic candidates that the voucher program sends money to wealthy families. (In New Hanover County, the area's median income for families was $79,106, according to census data from 2023.)
Before the forum, Lee had voted to clear the voucher waitlist with an additional $463 million in state funding. According to reporting from WUNC, the program's total cost over a decade will be nearly $6.5 billion by 2033. Another of WUNC’s analyses showed that more than half of the applicants came from households over the $115,000 threshold.
However, in February, the state education board voted 9-2 to request a moratorium on voucher payments. The request will shape the DPI's budget request, but it doesn't constrain how the General Assembly will act.
Nordstrom said the expanded voucher funding is now equivalent to 9% of the state’s roughly $13-billion education budget. This year, $848 million went to the vouchers and $75 million to fund Education Student Accounts (ESA), which gives vouchers for students with disabilities.
Those families with students with disabilities sometimes argue that the funding from the ESA allows them to go to a school that specializes in supporting their students. However, there are instances where private schools can’t accommodate or don’t always have the resources to help those with disabilities.
Accountability at New Hanover County private schools
Alex Granados is the associate director of communications for NCSEAA. He emailed WHQR to explain that private schools must submit testing data to NCSEAA. Sometimes, private schools select testing through the Educational Records Bureau (ERB).
Because of the small number of opportunity scholarship students at individual schools and the lack of a universal test across all private schools, the state does not currently have aggregate data on student achievement, Granados wrote.
However, legislation from December 2024 requires UNC’s Office of Learning Research to study and report on finding a standard nationally standardized test for 3rd and 8th-grade students to be administered in the 2026-2027 school year. Those scores should be produced in an aggregate report.
He also wrote that this year, those 11th graders using the vouchers must take the ACT — but schools with more than 25 scholarship students don’t have report scores until July.
There are few other accountability standards; the state does not require specific credentials for its teaching staff, and only the highest-ranking official at each school has to submit a background check.
Nordstrom of the NC Justice Center argued that for the market for private schools to work successfully, there has to be standardized accountability.
“For a market to drive improvements, you have to have good information. We have pressed legislators to provide [that], to have unbiased, quality information by which families can make informed choices for their family's education,” he said.
WHQR contacted most of New Hanover’s private schools for additional information and to request interviews on the school’s mission, academic performance, tuition affordability for Tier 1 families, and any attempts at diversity efforts, but only received emailed responses from Peace Rose Montessori, Friends School of Wilmington, and Wilmington Academy of Arts and Sciences (WAAS).
While WAAS Head of School Justin Fischetti declined an interview, he sent aggregate testing data, which can be found at the end of this report. Fischetti also wrote that they evaluate future students through testing data, grades, parent/student essays, and sometimes student interviews. They said they pride themselves on having their middle-grade students have the option to take on high school-level work, and they “embrace diversity” at the school.
Tony McCudden, Head of School for Friends School of Wilmington (FSW), wrote, “I cannot discuss the financial circumstances of families but at FSW we do have a generous financial aid program, making our community accessible to as many families as we can. As one of 76 Quakers schools nationally, we strive to be an inclusive community.”
Elena Rosemond, co-director of Peace Rose Montessori, wrote, “As a non-public school we have testing requirements from the state that we follow. We administer a nationally standardized test to all students beginning at grade 3 (the state requires it at 3, 6, 9, and 11). Due to our small sample size (we average 25 students in Lower Elementary, 20-25 in Upper Elementary, and 15-20 in Secondary), we collect but do not publish testing data for student privacy.”
Rosemond said the school has a strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion and writes, “As a small and relatively young school we are proud of the academic performance of our students and continue to put an emphasis on educating and raising well rounded global citizens.”
Editor's Note: The article has been updated to say that the state legislature, not NCSEAA, stipulates private school educator credentials.
WAAS 2023-2024 Testing Infographic by Ben Schachtman on Scribd
