NC elite private schools take little Opportunity Scholarship money

The most exclusive and expensive private schools in North Carolina receive little or no money from the Opportunity Scholarship voucher program, while the program’s largest recipients are predominantly lower-cost religious schools, according to a Carolina Journal analysis of state disbursement data.

Of the 703 schools that received scholarship funds in the 2025-26 school year, several of the state’s best-known private academies do not appear at all. Ravenscroft in Raleigh, Cary Academy, Charlotte Latin, Providence Day School in Charlotte, Durham Academy, Greensboro Day, Charlotte Country Day, Carolina Day School in Asheville, and Asheville School received no voucher money.

Those schools are among the most expensive in the state. For example, the high-school tuition rate for Durham Academy lands at $37,500, while Ravenscroft charges $34,190, Charlotte Latin $36,500, Providence Day $36,325, and Cary Academy $35,700.

For at least one of those schools, staying out is a deliberate choice. Ravenscroft says on its website that it does not participate because the program “imposes a series of rules and regulations” that “have the potential for the state to dictate future policies and programming.” That oversight, the Raleigh school says, would compromise its independence as a private institution.

The pattern complicates a common line of criticism. Senate Minority Leader Sydney Batch, D-Wake, argued in June, in a profanity-laced satirical video posted to social media, that Republicans were “giving $250 f—ing million a year to private schools so that rich kids could be taught ‘history’ with our f—ing tax dollars.” The disbursement data show the state’s most expensive academies drawing none of that money. The data do not track the income of families at the schools that do participate.

The Opportunity Scholarship Program awarded roughly $589 million to nearly 107,000 students this year, according to the NC State Education Assistance Authority (NCSEAA), which administers it. Enrollment roughly tripled after the General Assembly removed the program’s income limits in 2023. The maximum award is $7,686 for students in lower-income households.

The largest recipients

Carolina Journal ranked the 100 schools that received the most scholarship money in the 2025-26 school year and reviewed each school’s religious affiliation and published tuition.

More than 80 of the 100 are religious schools. Most of the rest are campuses of Thales Academy, a secular chain that charges about $7,000 a year. The others are mostly college-preparatory day schools and schools serving students with disabilities.

Carolina Journal found published tuition rates for 89 of the 100 schools. Among those 89, the median tuition is about $7,900 a year. Roughly two-thirds charge less than the $11,569 North Carolina spent per pupil from state and local funds in the 2024-25 school year, according to data from the state Department of Public Instruction (DPI), and about three-quarters charge less than the $13,068 spent per pupil counting federal money as well. At roughly 40 of the schools, a full scholarship covers the entire tuition bill.

The tuition figures reflect each school’s published rate for its highest grade level, drawn from school websites where available and third-party listings otherwise.

The higher-priced schools that do participate generally rank lower on the list. Cannon School in Concord ranks 118th in scholarship dollars received, and Forsyth Country Day School near Winston-Salem ranks 131st. The two highest-cost secular academies in the top 100 — Cape Fear Academy in Wilmington and Fayetteville Academy — rank 88th and 99th.

A consistent pattern

The pattern holds across the entire program, not only its largest recipients.

Of all the scholarship money awarded in 2025-26, about 78% of the money went to religious schools, a Carolina Journal classification of the disbursement data found. Protestant Christian schools alone accounted for at least 64% of the funds, and Catholic schools another 11%.

The schools in the secular minority are largely not elite academies, either. The largest are the 11 North Carolina campuses of the Thales Academy chain — nine of which rank among the program’s 100 biggest recipients — followed by Montessori, Waldorf, nature, and microschool programs; and schools serving students with disabilities, such as the John Crosland School in Charlotte and the Hill Learning Center in Durham.

Among the established college-preparatory day schools that do participate — including Cannon School, Forsyth Country Day, and Cape Fear Academy — each received under $1.9 million.

The concentration of public money at religious schools is settled law. In Carson v. Makin from 2022, the US Supreme Court ruled that states running tuition-assistance programs cannot exclude schools simply because they are religious, building on its 2020 decision in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue.

Growth after income caps lifted

The composition of the program has shifted since the income limits were removed. Among the top 100 schools, total scholarship dollars grew roughly fivefold between 2022-23, the last year before the program became available to all families, and 2025-26, according to a Carolina Journal analysis.

Several Catholic and college-preparatory schools grew faster than that. St. Gabriel Catholic School in Charlotte went from about $36,000 in scholarship funds in 2022-23 to $1.9 million this year. Charlotte Catholic High School’s total grew about 24-fold.

Five schools that received no scholarship money in 2022-23 now rank among the 100 largest recipients. They include some of the more expensive schools on the list, such as Charlotte Christian School, where tuition exceeds $27,000, and Caldwell Academy in Greensboro, at nearly $19,000.

Lower-cost schools still take in the largest share of the money. Schools charging less than the $11,569 the state spends per pupil received about 55% of all scholarship dollars in 2025-26, and roughly the same share of the growth since 2022-23, in part because they make up most of the recipients.

Heather Koons, research and communications director for Public Schools First NC, which opposes the program’s expansion, has argued the shift benefits wealthier families. “I think our state is now subsidizing wealthy families to go to private school,” she told CBS 17. “Some private schools have clearly increased their tuition as the vouchers became more available.”

By NCSEAA’s accounting, families in the two lowest of four income tiers received about two-thirds of the scholarship dollars this year, Carolina Journal reported earlier this month. The highest income tier, which has no income limit, accounted for about 17% of recipients and 11% of the funds.

The budget and the program’s future

The state budget, passed by lawmakers in early July, continues to grow the Opportunity Scholarship Program, turning back a push by Gov. Josh Stein and Democratic lawmakers to freeze or shrink it. 

The Republican-led General Assembly declined to adopt either Democratic approach. Stein’s proposed moratorium would have imposed an income cap near $90,000 for a family of four, which Carolina Journal reported would have removed an estimated 60,000 recipients. Another bill, sponsored by four House Democrats, would have cut nearly $400 million over two years and redirected it to child care. 

Instead, the final spending plan keeps the statutory schedule that lifts the program’s annual appropriation toward $825 million by 2032.

The budget also reinvests nearly $36 million into public schools, an amount equal to the savings the state realized over the past two years when students left public schools for private ones using vouchers worth less than the state spends per public-school pupil. 

A DPI report found the state spent about $34.3 million on scholarships for students who left public schools in 2024-25 — roughly $10.1 million less than it would have spent educating them in public schools.

“NC elite private schools take little Opportunity Scholarship money” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.