Vouchers Shot Down in NC

          A news story out of Raleigh on August 21st should concern everyone interested in education.  The lead paragraph read: “A judge’s ruling on Thursday declaring North Carolina’s school voucher program unconstitutional threw hundreds of families into chaos and struck a blow against the Republican education agenda in North Carolina.”

          Once again we have the Left and the Right doing battle on ideological grounds.  Only this time the victims are children.
          Last year North Carolina’s Republican-controlled Legislature passed an education bill popularly known as “Opportunity Scholarships.”  The bill, signed into law by Governor McCrory, provides vouchers worth up to $4,200 to low-income families that would enable qualified children to attend private schools.  Compared to public school enrollment of 1.5 million students in the state, this program is tiny, offering vouchers to just 1,900 families.  Moreover, the $4,200 cost to the state treasury is less than half the average cost per student in public schools.  So why the opposition?
          Reading the hyperbolic statements from opponents of the program, you would think that Republicans are out to destroy public education.  Organizations like the NC Association of Educators, the left-leaning advocacy group NC Justice Center, and the NC School Boards Association all went ballistic and sued.  Superior Court Justice Robert Hobgood, a Democrat, agreed with them.  His ruling, coming just days before the start of the school year, was particularly cruel to the families who had been approved for the program, leaving them wondering how they would be able to afford the tuition.  The latest news is that most of these families will still send their children to private schools in the hope that the judge’s ruling will be reversed.  They have reason to be optimistic, since other courts have ruled in favor of the constitutionality of school vouchers.
          There are no private schools in Perquimans County, so it not affected by the voucher decision.  My limited experience here has been more than satisfactory, a credit to the administrators and the teachers in this school district.  But this is no reason to be complacent, nor to viscerally oppose new ideas, especially the ones that benefit the poor and the disadvantaged. 
          The North Carolina Legislature is paying attention.  So should we all.