NC voucher use triples across 3 school years

Catch up quick: When state lawmakers approved the budget in September 2023, they opened up opportunity scholarships, commonly known as vouchers, to families regardless of their income.

• The budget also increased public funds for private school tuition and eliminated the prior public school enrollment requirement.
• Funding is based on income and ranges from roughly $3,000 to $7,000. Applications for the upcoming school year close on Friday, Aug. 14, at 5pm.

Context: Of the state's 997 private schools, 119 are in Mecklenburg County and 100 are in Wake County. In North Carolina, 143,998 students attend private schools, with 22,687 of them in Mecklenburg and 23,982 in Wake.

• Of Mecklenburg County's 119 private schools, 84 schools accept vouchers. Other private schools, such as Charlotte Latin and Providence Day, don't accept vouchers. In Wake County, 81 accept vouchers.

By the numbers: State spending has reached $589 million in 2025-26, according to state data.

• Wake County students received the most funding statewide: $70.3 million. More than half of its private school students, or 14,521, received scholarships in 2025-26.
• 11,391 students in Mecklenburg County received opportunity scholarships in 2025-26 for a total of $57.6 million.

Zoom in: While private school enrollment has increased following the pandemic, there hasn't been a mass exodus from public to private schools as voucher funding has increased.

• "What we're initially seeing is that it's easier to enroll your existing families into these opportunity scholarships than it is to expand the size of your school," UNC Charlotte professor Jason Giersch tells Axios.
• The increased dollars come from the state's general fund.
• State money allocated for the opportunity scholarships has not been allocated or earmarked for education, Samantha Schuermann, a UNC Charlotte Ph.D. student and graduate research assistant, tells Axios.
• "It comes from a separate fund that's collected from surplus business tax," Schuermann says.
• On the public school side, the number of students enrolled in public schools helps determine how much funding the state allocates to districts.

Between the lines: The schools receiving the most money are faith-based.

• Many of those religious schools have desired access to state dollars for decades, Giersch says. Plus, faith-based schools tend to have lower tuition, he says, meaning vouchers could stretch further there.
• The 10 schools receiving the most Opportunity Scholarship funding statewide are all faith-based.

Mecklenburg County's nine Catholic schools, for instance, now see more than half of their families using opportunity scholarships, Gregory Monroe, Superintendent of Catholic Diocese of Charlotte Schools, tells Axios. Roughly a quarter of those students would not be able to attend a Mecklenburg Area Catholic Schools (MACS) school without an opportunity scholarship, Monroe says.

• "We also know that others, even above that quarter number, would probably struggle to be able to find it financially accessible," Monroe says.
• MACS received $16.8 million in 2025-26. Funding ranged from $868,830 for St. Patrick (pre-K through 5th grade) to $3.065 million for Charlotte Catholic High School.
• MACS continues to provide around $4.5 million in internal financial aid in addition to opportunity scholarships, Monroe says.

The big picture: The long-term effects of expanded voucher access remain unclear. Schuermann is collecting data on whether the expansion affects tuition.

The intrigue: While Republicans have championed vouchers in the name of providing families with additional educational choices, the public remains divided on the program, Giersch says.

• Another concern is the varying caliber among private schools.
• "We are funding schools to the tune of $589 million [this past year], but we don't have an understanding of the quality of the schools that are receiving the funds," Schuermann says.
• Private schools aren't held to the same state standards as the public school system.

What we're watching: An audit of the program from the state auditor's office is expected to be released later this year.