Dozens of North Carolina parents held a rally on Wednesday to urge Republican legislators to fully fund scholarships for children to attend private and religious schools after lawmakers failed to work out an agreement earlier this year to meet the program's soaring demand.
A state budget provision last year ending income caps to qualify for the decade-old Opportunity Scholarship program and the repeal of another eligibility requirement led to a six-fold increase in new applications for the coming school year. But without enough funding set aside, nearly 55,000 children who qualified for scholarships were placed on a waiting list.
House and Senate Republicans said during this year's chief General Assembly session that eliminating the waiting list was a top priority. But the two chambers failed to work out a deal to appropriate hundreds of millions of additional dollars for the program before adjourning in late June.
"We've been told time and time again that they would get this done, and it so far has not happened," said Rachel Brady of Wake Forest, a rally organizer who is among the waiting list families. "We applaud your school choice efforts, but we are not going to be forgotten ... it's time to act now and get this done."
The gathering behind the Legislative Building came as the House convened to consider overriding three vetoed bills unrelated to the scholarships. Senators, however, declined to take any actions this week. The legislature's next scheduled meetings are in early September.
During this year's primary session, the Senate passed a standalone spending measure that allocated $488 million to cover the program and another private education funding initiative. But House members didn't act on the measure and instead wanted the private-school money accompanied by public school spending increases within a budget bill.
House Speaker Tim Moore, who spoke with some of the parents Wednesday, said he was hopeful an agreement could be reached this year. He wants any solution to make scholarship awards retroactive to the start of the school year.
Senate leader Phil Berger also met with the advocates and expressed his support but told the parents to urge House members to vote on the Senate's standalone measure, spokesperson Lauren Horsch said. Moore said passing the Senate measure wasn't allowed by the rules governing this week's session.
The delay already has affected families, according to Wednesday's speakers, who have either pulled their children out of private school enrollment this fall because scholarships haven't come through or who feel the pinch of paying more tuition from their own wallets.
Jason Phibbs, co-founder of Heritage Classical Academy in Stanly County, said that enrollment at his school has fallen at least 10% during the last few months in the wake of the waiting list delay. Families have been "left to decide whether they pull children out of the school that's best for their family, split children between schools, or make extraordinary sacrifices in hopes of making tuition payments," he said.
Elizabeth Foskey of Raleigh, a first-time scholarship applicant, said she and her husband are making ends meet so their third-grader and kindergartener can attend Thales Academy starting this year without the scholarships.
Lawmakers "gave us hope that we were getting this money. So we stuck it out," Foskey said, adding that with the first school payments due Aug. 15, "we had to sacrifice quite a bit."
Until this school year, only low- and some middle-income families could qualify for the scholarships. The funding shortfall for the expanded program meant there was only enough money to provide awards to children who received scholarships last year and some new applicants whose family income fell below certain levels. A family of four that makes more than $115,440, for example, is currently left out.
Gov. Roy Cooper and other Democrats have strongly opposed the Opportunity Scholarship program, saying it takes away money that could otherwise buttress the state's traditional public schools. The elimination of the income caps makes it worse, they argue, by allowing even millionaires to receive grants, albeit ones that are smaller than those with lower income levels. Any pro-school voucher bill likely would be vetoed by Cooper, but Republicans hold narrow veto-proof majorities.
If fully funded, scholarships for the school year would range from $7,468 for the lowest-income earners to $3,360 for the highest.