Schoolkids raising their hands in classroom

Parents Show High Demand For School Choice In Multiple States

Education

April 8, 2024

Palmetto Promise is quoted in this piece by Patrick Gleason, originally published in Forbes.

Kevin Costner’s character in Field of Dreams, winner of the Oscar for Best Picture in 1990, was inspired to turn an Iowa cornfield into a baseball diamond after hearing the words, “if you build it, they will come.” In the reality of 2024, meanwhile, state lawmakers around the country are discovering that when it comes to educational choice, if they offer it, families will utilize it.

Take North Carolina, where lawmakers voted last year to make theirs one of the dozen states now offering a school choice program that is available to all families. Legislators in Raleigh did this by removing the income cap for the state’s Opportunity Scholarship program, North Carolina’s more than decade old education voucher program that helps parents send their child to a private school and pay for other education-related expenses.

The first day of March was the annual deadline for families to apply for an education voucher worth up to nearly $7,000 to use in the next school year. Based on the number of applications submitted, demand for school choice in North Carolina is growing.

“The latest reports show that 72,000 families have applied for this program this year alone, a surge of more than 500% over last year,” writes Brian Balfour, policy director at the John Locke Foundation (JLF), a North Carolina-based think tank. “The demand for scholarships has far exceeded the amount of funding the legislature provided for the program in last year’s budget, which has led to speculation that legislators will consider expanding funding for the program this session in order to meet the demand.”

Balfour and many others think lawmakers should go ahead and boost funding for Opportunity Scholarships during the legislative session that convenes this month. “Rough estimates say that about another $300 million would be sufficient to fund all the applicants,” Balfour added. “Not an insignificant amount, but the state is well-equipped to handle it.”

Governor Roy Cooper (D-N.C.), meanwhile, is calling for a moratorium on eligibility expansion for Opportunity Scholarships. In the past week, Governor Cooper reiterated his belief that allowing more families access to Opportunity Scholarships is “the wrong way to go.”

“When you look at the money they put in vouchers, we could give teachers a 2.6% raise,” Cooper added. “We could double the number of pre-K slots.”

Governor Cooper and other opponents of expanded school choice claim it deprives the government-run school system of revenue. Basic math, however, illustrates how expanding access to school choice programs like North Carolina’s actually saves taxpayers. The state of North Carolina currently spends an average of $8,528 per public school pupil, which is 21% more than what the state spends on each kid who utilizes an education voucher at the maximum value. The program is means-tested, with the value of the voucher falling as household income raises.

South Carolina Lawmakers Vote To Make School Choice Universal In The Palmetto State

South Carolina lawmakers are now seeking to follow the lead of their counterparts in North Carolina. Less than a year after enacting the state’s first Education Scholarship Account (ESA) program, South Carolina lawmakers are already advancing legislation that would make South Carolina’s ESA program available to all families.

As in North Carolina, the application deadline for families to apply for an ESA in South Carolina passed in March. The application numbers in South Carolina show high demand for school choice is not limited to North Carolina.

With 5,000 ESAs available for the coming year, South Carolina families submitted almost 8,000 student applications for an ESA. A statement issued by the Palmetto Promise Institute, a South Carolina-based think tank, noted that “the enthusiastic application numbers clearly show that South Carolina families want school choice.”

Given this documentation of the high demand for school choice in their state, many South Carolina lawmakers believe it’s time to make ESAs available to all families. H.5164, a bill passed by the South Carolina House in March, would make South Carolina’s new ESA program universally available by removing the income cap and eliminating the program’s limitation of eligibility to only those students who attended a public school in the previous year.

South Carolina’s ESA program is currently capped at 15,000 students. H.5164, should it be approved by the South Carolina Senate and signed by Governor Henry McMaster (R), would repeal that cap in three years, after which ESA availability would be based on demand.

Wendy Damron, president of the Palmetto Promise Institute, called House passage of H.5164, “a bold response to South Carolinians’ overwhelming demand for universal school choice.” Damron added that “a new poll found that 75% of South Carolina voters support the adoption of universal education savings accounts.”

“The growing demand for educational options for families is one of the biggest stories of the last ten years,” Dr. Robert Luebke, director of JLF’s Center for Effective Education, told The Carolina Journal. “The demand has been strong, stronger than many policymakers thought it would be. During the upcoming legislative session, lawmakers will have the chance to demonstrate their commitment by providing funding for all Opportunity Scholarship applicants. Without the additional funding, parents will likely view expansion as just another broken promise.”

South Carolina Lawmakers Vote To Make School Choice Universal In The Palmetto State

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