North Carolina legislators ratified a bill on Wednesday that will give public money for students attending private schools.
The Republican-controlled General Assembly adopted House Bill 10 that includes funding for private school vouchers. The bill has been sent to Gov. Roy Cooper, who is expected to veto it. However, with a supermajority, the General Assembly is expected to override the governor’s veto.
The NC Office of State Budget and Management is anticipating that around 19% of public school students in the state will move to private schools, according to county officials.
The adoption of the bill has implications for Burke County.
Lawson
Keith Lawson, finance director for Burke County Public Schools, said the estimate is that 47 students (0.4%) across all grades in the local school system could leave for private school. That would mean a loss of $347,285 in funding to Burke County Public Schools, he said.
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Lawson said the school system anticipates there will be a combination of funding adjustments where possible and a partial request (for more funding) to the county to make up the nearly $350,000 lost.
Will the county make up any funding lost due to students moving to private schools?
Burke County Manager Brian Epley said the way the state funds public schools is on per-pupil basis. Each school system gets an allotment of approximately $7,000 per student, per school. When a student leaves a school and goes to private school, the public school system no longer receives that per-pupil allocation, he said.
Epley said the county’s constitutional job is to provide buildings and support for local education. He said the county’s education funding has increased 25% in the last two budgets, going from $16.3 million to $20.25 million this fiscal year, with a focus on teacher supplements and reducing teacher-student ratios.
“And those two things have seen incredible improvement in two years. So, we’ll continue to focus on that,†Epley said.
But he said compared to other counties in the state, Burke County has a lot of ground to make up when it comes to school funding.
Epley
Burke County is 96th in local funding for the public school system, he said.
Epley said the county’s bigger challenge in funding public education is trying to spur economic growth. He said last year, the county had 1.74% growth, which was about half of inflation. That’s an indication its economic growth isn’t keeping pace with what other communities are seeing.
“So, we just have to figure out a way, innovatively, to create economic development and to make sure that we’re able to support public education at a local level in a more competitive way,†Epley said.
The county being able to attract an economic-development client that would invest $200 million, for instance, would provide a substantial tax base and revenue. That would increase substantially the county’s ability to fund public education, Epley said.
The Opportunity Scholarships voucher program won’t change the county’s school funding goals, he said.
“I think our focus right now is to do as much as we can afford responsibly each year, and we hope that’s enough to make a meaningful impact in the goals we set,†Epley said.
Opportunity Scholarships range from approximately $3,000 to $7,000 and are based on a family’s household income, according to the North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority. It says scholarships can be used to pay the required tuition and fees to attend an eligible private school.
HB 10 increases funding over the next eight years to the Opportunity Scholarship Grant Fund Reserve. It will increase from this fiscal year funding of $191.5 million to $800 million in the 2031-32 fiscal year.
