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WUNC's American Graduate Project is part of a nationwide public media conversation about the dropout crisis. We'll explore the issue through news reports, call-in programs and a forum produced with UNC-TV. Also as a part of this project we've partnered with the Durham Nativity School and YO: Durham to found the WUNC Youth Radio Club. These reports are part of American Graduate-Let’s Make it Happen!- a public media initiative to address the drop out crisis, supported by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and these generous funders: Project Funders:GlaxoSmithKlineThe Goodnight Educational FoundationJoseph M. Bryan Foundation State FarmThe Grable FoundationFarrington FoundationMore education stories from WUNC

Lawmakers, Advocates Look To Expand Private School Vouchers

Parents, advocates and families gathered outside the legislative building on Tuesday to show their support for the state's private school voucher program.
Reema Khrais

  North Carolina legislative leaders, parents and advocates are looking to expand the state’s private school voucher program.

They say they want to lift the cap so that all low-income families that applied and qualified for the program can receive help.

The program gives families up to $4,200 in tuition money at private and religious schools. More than 5,000 families – most of them minorities - applied for the coming fall, but less than half will be randomly picked, according to leaders of Parents for Educational Freedom North Carolina.

“You have parents in desperate need of finding an option that’s going to work for their child,” said PEFNC president Darrell Allison.

Allison said more families were looking to take advantage of the vouchers, but the application process was stalled earlier this year when a judge issued an injunction. The state Supreme Court lifted the injunction last month.

Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Thom Tillis joined advocates at a news conference to show their support for the program. Other lawmakers from both parties were also present. 

“We need you to work hard for us and have your voice heard, to make sure we can have as many children have that choice, have the choice that so many who speak against this have taken and put their kids in private schools,” Tillis said.

The legislature set aside $10 million last year for the program. Leaders of PEFNC say between $6 million and $8 million would be needed to provide vouchers for all families who applied and qualified.

Critics of the law say they have no problem with children wanting to attend private schools, but that it should not come at the expense of public schools. They argue that spending taxpayer dollars on private schools is unconstitutional, particularly because they do not have the academic standards or accountability of public schools.

Two lawsuits challenging the program’s legality were filed by the North Carolina Association of Educators and the North Carolina School Boards Association and continue to be held up in court. 

Reema Khrais joined WUNC in 2013 to cover education in pre-kindergarten through high school. Previously, she won the prestigious Joan B. Kroc Fellowship. For the fellowship, she spent a year at NPR where she reported nationally, produced on Weekends on All Things Considered and edited on the digital desk. She also spent some time at New York Public Radio as an education reporter, covering the overhaul of vocational schools, the contentious closures of city schools and age-old high school rivalries.
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