Author: R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D
The Left is at it again: opposing anything and everything that allows people to exercise their guaranteed right to freedom of choice for themselves and their families. This effort to create an all-powerful and controlling government is an essential part of the Marxist playbook–to substitute the government for the family and individual liberty. I am referring to what is currently happening in the North Carolina General Assembly (GA). At the beginning of each legislative session, legislators have the opportunity to introduce what amounts to large numbers of bills that they would like to become law in the state. Several bills have been introduced that if enacted would impact significantly on school choice here in North Carolina. Let’s take a look.
Over the past several years, the Republicans who have controlled both the Senate and the House have enacted legislation that has greatly expanded the freedom of parents to select the school of their choice for their children. This has been primarily through the so-called Opportunity Scholarship Program, which provides stipends to parents (who apply for the money) that can be applied to help pay for private school tuition and related expenses. Due to income limits and limited funding for the program, not all parents who apply receive the stipends.
As could have been anticipated, the Left is up in arms about this program because it enables parents to remove their children from government controlled public schools. Never forget, that all autocratic governments throughout history have always insisted on controlling public schools and what they teach. This is how they stay in power: indoctrinating the children. Some recent examples are Diversity Equity Inclusion (DEI); teaching that America is a racist country; teaching that everyone is free to choose their own gender; and biological men competing against women in sports. Parents want the freedom to choose schools that teach the values and principles they believe in and not this leftist woke ideology. They also want their children to attend schools that are successful in teaching basic academic skills, which many of the government run public schools fail to do. By the way, there is nothing in the U.S. or N.C. constitutions that require children to attend only government-run public schools. There are, however, groups like Public Schools First N.C. and the N.C. Teachers’ Association that want to do away with parent’s right to choose the school their children attend. Governor Josh Stein also appears to be against school choice.
Here are a few items in this year’s General Assembly that should concern all conservatives who believe in school choice. First, there are a couple of bills that seek to raise teacher pay. Importantly, however, none of these bills so far include any requirement that pay increases be linked to the job performance of the teachers. Given the fact that many children are failing to meet minimum grade requirements for reading and math, teacher pay should, to the greatest extent possible, be linked to the demonstrated effectiveness of the teachers in improving the educational achievement of their students. Otherwise, where is the incentive to improve teaching effectiveness? Second, Senate Bill 744, would place a number of extreme, government controls on private schools such as: annual audits of their finances by the state treasurer’s office; requiring that a minimum of 50% of teachers in privates schools be certified by the state; private schools will not be permitted to raise their tuition by more than 5% a year; and private schools (including church affiliated) cannot select students based on their religion or stated gender. This would prevent all girls or all boys schools, and also require, for example, a Jewish school to admit Muslims students.
Lastly, a bill introduced, which I strongly favor, to allow homeschool parents to apply for an Opportunity Scholarship stipend has finally been introduced. Homeschool parents pay as much taxes to support education in North Carolina as any other parent; and in addition, make significant financial sacrifice in order to teach their children themselves, which is a basic freedom of our country. But who is opposed to this fair and equitable bill? The usual leftist suspects I mentioned above.
If you believe in school choice, now is the time to let your elected legislators know. In truth, the best solution to the school choice issue is to grant parents a set amount of money to be used for them to homeschool, or select a public, charter or private school for their children. All schools would then be treated equally as far as funding is concerned. Accountability for student learning should be the same for all types of schools consisting of standardized testing for strictly academic subjects. The money awarded should be independent of income level and guaranteed every year without having to enter a lottery to get the stipend. There are other states who handle school choice in the manner. North Carolina needs to do so also.