Even though summer has just begun, many families are already looking towards the upcoming school year, wanting to ensure their children...
Hi there,
Even though summer has just begun, many families are already looking towards the upcoming school year, wanting to ensure their children have everything they need: new supplies, clothes that fit, and the ability to start the year off on the right foot.
But for thousands of North Carolina families, they are only focused on one thing: “Where is the promised Opportunity Scholarship?”
At this point you probably want to know what Opportunity Scholarships are. They’re a statewide educational program that “provid[es] state-funded vouchers worth up to nearly $7,500 in 2024-25 to help cover the cost of tuition and fees at participating private schools.” (And fortunately last year, North Carolina lawmakers expanded the program. They made every family eligible for this potentially life-changing program!)
That seems great, right? So what’s the holdup?
Well, a lot of North Carolina families applied for the program, and like we said, it isn’t fully funded yet…
That means that families who applied might not get a scholarship for their kid(s)
And even worse, Governor Cooper continuously attacks Opportunity Scholarships.
He falsely claimed they rob public schools of money
And many believe the governor would veto funding
This would not give the program enough money to go on… let alone expand in order to meet its growing demand
Is the governor right? Or is he putting teachers unions first?
Polling consistently shows high support for school choice programs.
So despite the fact that school is only a little over a month away, thousands of families’ plans for the next school year are still in flux
And that creates a lot of additional stress for moms, dads, grandparents, and family members that provide support
On top of hurting our families, that delay also hurts our schools
Right now school administrators and teachers don’t know:
How many new students they’ll get (i.e. how big will classrooms be)
How many students they lost
How many teachers they need
There’s also a political point to be made here: not funding the Opportunity Scholarships is bad for state legislators.
Last fall, the House and Senate both basked in the praise they received for standing with ⅔ of North Carolina voters and expanding educational options for parents.
But promising voters access to better schools, then not following through, is not going to make North Carolina parents happy!
So what needs to happen?
The House needs to make a decision on funding the Opportunity Scholarship Program and not wait to simply include it in the budget.
They need to pass the funding now, and be ready to override a veto from the Governor’s office if he chooses to go against the people of North Carolina and not support families in need.
During the 2018 election, voters made their voices heard when they approved an amendment on the ballot that decreased the income cap tax to 7 percent
This didn’t cut taxes… instead it created a ceiling for your income taxes (they can’t go higher than 7%)
Recently, leaders in the NC Senate proposed lowering the maximum from 7 to 5 percent
So why don’t (some) people want to guarantee their taxes can’t spike?
Some left-wing legislators and activists claim the tax favors the wealthy
On top of that, some of the same people think tax paying citizens (like you) should not be allowed to vote for lower maximum taxes, implying that you don't know what's in your best interest
So what are the facts?
Look at the facts. In 2021, North Carolina households earning more than $200,000 per year only represented 8.4 percent of all taxpayers
They paid 50.6 percent of all income tax revenue collected by the state
So that kind of debunks the attacks on the “wealthy”
The real problem is that opponents of the tax cuts think this $13 billion is theirs
They think that letting you keep more of the money you earned through your own hard work is taking the government’s $13 billion
They don’t get that it’s just letting people like you and I keep a little bit more of the money we worked so hard to get
The proposed reduction in the maximum income tax from 7 percent to 5 percent is supported by common sense economics, aligns with the state’s Constitution, and benefits all taxpayers, regardless of identity or income
Campaign finance law changes in the HB237 conference report got a lot of attention from the media and the public.
Democrats and Gov. Roy Cooper opposed these changes
They said they create a loophole for “secret, unlimited campaign money”
They think it keeps voters ignorant about some campaign donations
Why is this important?
Well, a lot of the people criticizing this legislation don’t really understand what’s going on today…
While Democrats attacked the changes, claiming that they would reduce voter transparency, they benefit from the current system
In fact Gov. Cooper received $12.7 from the Democratic Leadership Committee in 2020
Billionaires (including Democrat billionaires) already put unlimited amounts of money into elections through political parties and the status quo has a lot of problems that we need to fix
One obvious problem that everyone should fix is requiring that people submit actual data instead of an non-searchable image file…that simple unobtrusive (and reasonable step) would comply with our first amendment rights AND encourage transparency
