2/3 of NC voucher dollars go to lower-income families

Image of school choice towels courtesy of School Choice Week.

Nearly two-thirds of North Carolina Opportunity Scholarship dollars still flow to the program’s lower-income families, according to newly released state data.

The figures arrive as Gov. Josh Stein and legislative Democrats push to cap who qualifies for the vouchers and pass a rollback of the program that would strip eligibility from tens of thousands of students.

The new data from the NC State Education Assistance Authority (NCSEAA) — the state agency responsible for administering the voucher program — shows that the Opportunity Scholarship Program has grown from 1,216 students and $4.6 million in awards in its first year to 106,863 students and roughly $589 million as of June 1. The average award now stands at $5,512.

Much of the surge followed the 2024–25 school year, when the Republican-led General Assembly opened the program to all families regardless of income.

Awards are set on a tiered schedule depending on household size and income. For the 2025-2026 school year, families of four earning up to $59,000 a year qualified for the largest award amount, up to $7,686. That amount shrinks as household income jumps, to a smallest award of $3,458 for households earning more than $267,651 or those that do not report income.

Despite that universal expansion, lower-income households continue to benefit the most. The lowest two income tiers account for 58,245 students, or 54.5% of all recipients, and $390.2 million, or 66% of the dollars paid. The highest tier, tier four, remains the smallest group at 18,329 students and draws just under 11% of the funding.

Compared with the same tier counts a year ago, tier four expanded about 60%, outpacing every other bracket, while tiers one through three grew between 21% and 35%. As a result, the lower two tiers’ share of all recipients slipped from 57.6% to 54.5% over the year.

“The new data confirms what we have long believed: low- and moderate-income families benefit most from the Opportunity Scholarship program,” said Robert Luebke, director of the Center for Effective Education at the John Locke Foundation.

Stein’s recommended budget, unveiled April 21, would impose a moratorium on new scholarships and cap eligibility at 150% of the federal reduced-price lunch level. That’s roughly $90,000 a year for a family of four. Because that threshold falls within tier two, every student in tiers three and four would lose eligibility outright, along with the tier two families earning above $90,000.

Carolina Journal previously reported the change would remove an estimated 60,000 students from the program when factoring in a portion of families in the second tier.

A separate measure, House Bill 1066, filed April 29 by four House Democrats, would cut nearly $400 million from the program over two years and redirect it to child-care subsidies, while capping eligibility at 200% of the federal lunch threshold. That cap would eliminate the same two upper tiers — the 48,618 students in tiers three and four.

The Democratic-controlled State Board of Education has separately asked lawmakers to freeze new awards and steer the money to public schools.

Based on the NCSEAA data, much of the program’s population appears to be already locked in. Nearly two-thirds of this year’s recipients are renewals. Enrollment also tends to skew young, with students in kindergarten through fifth grade making up 54% of the total. Kindergartners are now double the number of high school seniors.

Asian enrollment has climbed roughly fivefold since the 2022–2023 school year, from 632 to 3,141 students, and Hispanic students now make up 10.5% of recipients. At the same time, the program’s racial composition has shifted as it went universal: white students rose from 61% of recipients in 2022–23 to about 73% this year, while black students fell from 20% to 10.6%.

Hanging over the budget debate is a coming audit. State Auditor Dave Boliek, a Republican, said his office flagged the program in its risk analysis and hopes to publish findings this fall.