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Hi John,

Did you hear what Governor Cooper recently said about North Carolina schools?

He proclaimed 2024 “The Year of the Public Schools ([link removed]) ” two days into National School Choice Week.

In the past, he complained about school choice draining money from public schools. He claimed that we need to focus on funding public schools before trying school choice.

Meanwhile, anti-school choice advocates seeking to halt expansion of North Carolina’s Opportunity Scholarship Program circulated a post called “Tales of an Educated Debutante ([link removed]) .” The post claims that the cost of school choice will be exorbitant and keep our tax dollars away from public education.

But is school choice actually harming public schools? In this week’s edition of Locke Notes, we’ll briefly go over research on this topic, and some suggestions for what the state government can actually do to help North Carolina public schools.

Does School Choice Really Hurt Public Schools?

Well, for the 2021-2022 school year, spending on public schools dwarfed that of the Opportunity Scholarship Program. In fact, spending for this school choice program was only 0.7% of total spending on public schools ([link removed]) .

So far, it does not sound like North Carolina school choice is draining public schools of much-needed funds.

Georgetown University’s Marguerite Roza conducted research ([link removed]) into the impact of school choice on overall education funding. She found that public dollars flowing to private schools make up around only 1.9% of North Carolina’s total education budget.

While Dr. Bob Luebke, Locke’s Director of the Center for Effective Education, cautions that more complex analyses are needed, this research is still telling. School choice programs are not a drag on North Carolina’s education budget to the detriment of public schools.

So what are some ways that the North Carolina state government can actually help public schools?

Some Possible Solutions

North Carolina’s public education issues have many causes, and no silver bullet legislation exists to solve every problem. However, there are a few ways that the state government can help improve the situation.

Georgetown University’s Edunomics Lab suggests these five principles ([link removed]) :
* Tying discussion of student outcomes to budget decisions.
* Requiring school board members to have finance training.
* Keeping benefits in check.
* Requiring school districts to publish budgets multiple years out.
* Supporting and intervening in fiscally mismanaged districts.

In addition, Dr. Luebke lays out some ways that North Carolina legislators are adding local pet projects to North Carolina’s state education budget ([link removed]) . Cutting down on use of the state purse to finance these local projects could be another step towards a more responsible education budget.

Governor Cooper and others should be careful of scapegoating school choice for public education’s woes. There are other steps the government can take to actually improve North Carolina’s public schools.

Esse Quam Videri,
Brooke Medina


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** Defining Digit
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0.7% ([link removed])
Spending on school choice as a percentage of public school spending ([link removed])
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