<body><div><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=4A5lgF_0vhvuqUI00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=4A5lgF_0vhvuqUI00" width="768" height="512" >The General Assembly has been working for months to get greater school choice across the finish line for families. But in one fell swoop, Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the bill and effectively told parents and students to shut up and sit down — presumably in a public school classroom. Thankfully, legislators are likely to return soon to override that veto. The bill Cooper vetoed would have provided roughly $463 million to fund North Carolina’s popular Opportunity Scholarship Program, a school-choice program that provides parents with financial help to send their students to a private school. The program is in such high demand that mass traffic on the program’s website temporarily crashed the site earlier this year when applications for the program went live.More than 32,500 North Carolina students benefited from the Opportunity Scholarship Program during the 2023-2024 school year, while roughly 55,000 other North Carolina students were put on a waiting list when funding for the program was exhausted. The effort to grant additional funding to the Opportunity Scholarship Program sought to provide enough resources to clear that backlog of applications — a reasonable expenditure given that the program accounts for just 3% of the state’s total budget for education.None of this stopped Cooper from vetoing the bill, though. While doubling down on his efforts to protect public schools from greater accountability through competition, he also doubled down on his attack on low-income, working-class families looking for more educational choices for their children — a choice that he enjoyed when he sent one of his own children to private school.Public schools may be a suitable option for some students, but for many others, the one-size-fits-all educational model just doesn’t work. Families have any number of reasons for sending their child to a private school, including to experience smaller class sizes, access specialized services, or escape failing schools. Whatever their individual reasons may be, it’s clear that more North Carolina families want the choice to send their child elsewhere, as evidenced by the 72,000 applications for Opportunity Scholarships this year.Cooper has continued his campaign against the Opportunity Scholarship Program and has used disingenuous rhetoric to paint the school choice program as a “government handout for millionaires.” But the truth is that the Opportunity Scholarship Program makes a private education possible for many families that could never finance one on their own. While any eligible North Carolina family can apply for a scholarship, children from low-income families are prioritized in the program. And even for families that have made the sacrifices necessary to finance a private education on their own, a little help from the Opportunity Scholarship Program could go a long way toward helping them breathe a little easier, especially in this economy.If the government is going to be in the business of funding education, it should seek to provide access to the best education possible for the best price possible — not simply relegate students to a public school that is not meeting their needs. North Carolina’s per-pupil spending at public schools totals roughly $12,000 a year. And while that’s below the national average, it’s still 70% more than lawmakers allotted for the maximum Opportunity Scholarship award. With the Opportunity Scholarship Program, students can get a private school education while saving taxpayers money. Cooper was swift to deny parents more school choice, but North Carolina students aren’t likely to suffer the consequences. Because school-choice supporters in the General Assembly have a supermajority, they are almost certain to return to Raleigh and override this veto before their terms expire at the end of the year. School choice supports student safety and greater parental engagement and helps to improve student performance. The success of the Tar Heel State lies in the next generation. It’s shameful that the governor wants to stymie their success in school.</div></body>

Mountain View, CA

NewsBreak

Gov. Cooper puts parents in detention, vetoes school-choice funding

The General Assembly has been working for months to get greater school choice across the finish line for families. But in one fell swoop, Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the bill and effectively told parents and students to shut up and sit down — presumably in a public school classroom. Thankfully, legislators are likely to return soon to override that veto.