Stein’s budget would kick roughly 60,000 students off Opportunity Scholarships

Democratic Gov. Josh Stein’s recommended state budget would phase out North Carolina’s Opportunity Scholarship Program, a move that could remove an estimated 60,000 students from a school-choice program that has served more than 106,000 children this year, according to state enrollment data.

Stein’s budget, unveiled April 21, proposes a moratorium on new Opportunity Scholarships and a new income cap of 150% of the eligibility level for the federal reduced-price school lunch program. For a family of four, that works out to roughly $90,000 a year. Families already receiving scholarships for the 2025-26 school year could renew their awards only if their household income falls below the new cap.

That threshold falls below the median household income in Wake County and just above it in Mecklenburg County for 2024, according to the US Census Bureau.

“This returns income limits to 2021 levels and ensures that public funds are targeted to students in need and otherwise support public school students and teachers,” Stein’s budget states.

The governor described the proposal as an effort to “let the program wind down.”

The budget also includes a separate $12.5 million appropriation to the ADM Contingency Reserve “to support projected student increases for the 2026-27 school year,” specifically “students who previously received vouchers but will now return to North Carolina’s excellent public schools.”

Who gets cut

As of early April 2026, 106,789 students were enrolled in the Opportunity Scholarship Program, according to data from the North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority (NCSEAA), the agency that administers the program.

NCSEAA divides recipients into four income tiers based on household size. For a family of four in the 2025-26 school year, the first tier covers households earning up to $59,478 and provides awards of up to $7,686. The second tier runs from $59,478 to $118,956 with awards up to $6,918. The third tier spans $118,956 to $267,651 with awards up to $4,612. Finally, the fourth tier covers households above $267,651 with awards up to $3,458.

Stein’s proposed $90,000 cap for a family of four falls inside tier two. That means every student in tiers three and four would lose eligibility, along with tier two families earning above $90,000.

Applied to the program’s 106,789 current recipients, that translates to roughly 60,000 students losing their scholarships. The precise number depends on the income distribution of current tier two families, data NCSEAA has not yet publicly released for 2025-26.

Reactions to budget

Mike Long, president of Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina (PEFNC), criticized the governor’s plan in a written statement.

“Governor Stein’s recommended budget is a direct attack on North Carolina families who rely on the Opportunity Scholarship Program,” Long said. “His proposal would rip scholarships away from moderate-income families — a police officer and a medical receptionist raising two children could be deemed too wealthy to qualify.”

“Thousands of families have made plans, sacrifices, and life decisions based on the promise that North Carolina would stand with them,” he added. “Governor Stein proposes pulling the rug out from under them. We are counting on the NC General Assembly to deliver a budget that protects educational freedom and keeps opportunity within reach for every child.”

Stein has argued the program would divert $7.5 billion from public schools over the next decade if left unchanged.

State Rep. Brandon Lofton, D-Mecklenburg, framed the issue as a trade-off between voucher growth and teacher pay during a legislative press conference on April 22.

“We came to Raleigh and we passed a budget that put more money into private school vouchers than it did into teacher raises,” Lofton said. “Every year since then, we’ve lost teachers in our classrooms. And instead of providing meaningful teacher raises, we’ve actually increased automatically the money going to private school vouchers.”

Robert Luebke, director of the Center for Effective Education at the John Locke Foundation, pushed back on Stein’s argument that vouchers drain money from public schools.

“The Opportunity Scholarship does not take money from the public schools,” Luebke said. “The Opportunity Scholarship is about choice. It’s about empowering parents with the ability to choose an education that best fits the needs and abilities of their child.”

Public support and fiscal impact

The Opportunity Scholarship Program has consistently polled well in North Carolina. A Carolina Journal poll released in January 2024 found that 64% of likely voters support the program, compared to 26% who oppose it.

State lawmakers currently fund Opportunity Scholarships at $625 million for the 2025-26 school year.

A report from the NC Department of Public Instruction presented to the State Board of Education in June 2025 found that 5,955 students who attended a public school during 2023-24 switched to a private school on an Opportunity Scholarship for 2024-25. The scholarships awarded to those students totaled roughly $34.3 million — about $10.1 million less than the $44.4 million the state would have spent educating them in the public schools.

Applications for the 2026-27 school year closed in early March, and NCSEAA is in the process of awarding scholarships for the coming year.

“Stein’s budget would kick roughly 60,000 students off Opportunity Scholarships” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.