Wake school district leaders slam vouchers: ‘Understand what they do to public schools’

Wake County public school leaders urged state legislators Thursday to respect Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of a bill that would provide almost $500 million in additional funding for private school vouchers.

In a press conference at Wake County Public School System headquarters in Cary, Wake County school board Chair Chris Heagarty, Vice Chair Monika Johnson-Hostler and Superintendent Robert Taylor blasted House Bill 10, which legislators passed earlier this month.

Originally, the intent of HB 10 was to require sheriffs to cooperate with detention requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, but the bill ultimately evolved into a “mini budget” as part of a compromise between the Republicans who control the state House and Senate.

That compromise included $463 million in additional taxpayer funding for the Opportunity Scholarship program, which pays for students to attend private schools. The General Assembly removed income limits on those vouchers last year, creating a waitlist of 55,000 students this spring. Families can receive between $3,360 and $7,468 per child, The News & Observer previously reported.

Cooper, a Democrat, vetoed the bill last week, but Republicans have the votes to override that veto.

Heagerty said Thursday he feared the bill would have “potentially disastrous impacts for Wake County,” calling it “very bad policy and a raw deal for families.”

“The choice to attend a private school shouldn’t come at the expense of weakening our public schools, which serve as a backbone for our community,” he said. “If public schools were adequately funded, maybe there wouldn’t be the same interest that we’ve seen in some private schools.”

The school system has a $2.2 billion budget, and just over half comes from the state, according to the proposed budget for the current fiscal year. However, Wake County’s public schools still face a number of funding challenges, including uncompetitive salaries for teachers and bus drivers, Heagarty said.

Furthermore, the school system could lose additional funding if the bill becomes law. State funding for K-12 schools is based on average daily membership, a measure of how many students are in school each day. If students leave Wake County public schools to attend private schools with Opportunity Scholarship money, the decline in average daily membership would lead to a decrease in funding.

Because the school system is still calculating its average daily membership for this school year, officials couldn’t offer an estimate of how the voucher program could impact them in the coming year – but they fear the worst, they said.

“It’s a lot of questions, a lot of concerns, and a lot of things we don’t have answers to,” Heagarty said. “So we can’t let this bill become law and destabilize our already underfunded public schools without speaking out and speaking up, and that’s why we’re here today.”

Statewide impacts

Officials said Thursday they not only fear for Wake County schools, but also for more rural counties.

“The concern is getting everyone to understand that if we are impacted as a large district, then we want people to recognize how it impacts other people,” Taylor said. “… It is about what we can do to support every district in this state and be the voice for them when they may not have the same public airwaves that we have.”

And paying for tuition doesn’t equate to covering all the costs a private education might entail, Heagarty noted.

“A family might be able to get tuition assistance that can help them afford the tuition bill, but maybe they can’t afford the uniforms,” he said. “Maybe they can’t afford the class trips to Europe or whatever other things might be offered that are expected of all the students but just aren’t accessible for that family.”

Those in support of Opportunity Scholarships say the program offers parents more freedom of choice.

“The emphasis that we have placed on Opportunity Scholarships is in giving parents more of a say in their child’s education,” Senate leader Phil Berger, a Republican, told reporters earlier this month.

House Rules Chair Rep. Destin Hall, a Caldwell County Republican expected to replace Speaker Tim Moore, has also publicly supported the program, calling it “extremely popular.”

“At the end of the day, most people agree that people should be able to send their kids to school where they want to send them,” Hall said.

It is not yet clear when legislators might vote on Cooper’s veto. The General Assembly will return for a one-day session Oct. 9, but leadership hasn’t said if they’ll address the issue then or wait until a weeklong session in November, after the election.

Parents considering the transition to private school should look at the school system’s efforts, Taylor said, noting Wake County’s historic 91.3% graduation rate for the class of 2024 and the more than $160 million in college scholarships received by members of that class.

“What I will say to the parents is that we have 199 public schools that accept every child that lives in this district and that we will gladly compare our results with any school, both public and private,” Taylor said. “... It is their choice to send their child anywhere that they want. But I ask that every person in this state take on personal responsibility and understand what they do to public schools when they accept voucher money or voucher funding.”