About 55,000 students are on a waitlist to receive Opportunity Scholarships, North Carolina’s private school voucher program.

Parents rallied on Wednesday to urge the legislature to pass House Bill 823. The bill, which passed the Senate earlier this year, would provide $248 million nonrecurring for the upcoming school year and $215.5 million recurring to support scholarships in the 2025-26 school year.

“Parents watched in utter frustration on July 4 when legislature left town without solving this problem. So parents woke up and said,‘We are not going to take this lying down,’” Rachel Brady, an organizer of the rally, said.

The House and the Senate adjourned without passing a budget for this year. The two chambers have not been able to agree about investments in both the expansion of voucher and public schools.

“The concern that members have had is that they want to make sure that if we’re talking about education, that we’re doing so comprehensively, that we’re also addressing the traditional schools as well,” House Speaker Tim Moore has said.

Gov. Roy Cooper has been on the road urging leaders and communities to support public schools. In other conservative states, cross-partisan agreements have led to investments in both. And conservative leaders are raising concerns about vouchers for the wealthy as well as the disproportionate investment of dollars in urban areas.

In the debate on the bill in a Senate committee, where it passed, legislators discussed and debated the impact on rural counties. According to new data, in 11 rural counties in North Carolina there are no private schools while in Mecklenburg County there are 96 private schools and in Wake County there are 91 private schools.

Parents urge lawmakers to clear waitlists

The parents at the rally delivered identical letters to Senate Pro Tempore Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore expressing their discontent.

“The Opportunity Scholarship gave us needed relief by opening up great educational opportunities for our children,” the letters said.

“Please act now to clear the waiting list of 55,000 students seeking school choice. Since school has started for some and tuition payments are due, we ask that you make funding retroactive,” the letter continued.

“Families are going to need this in the middle of rapid inflation. Working class families at the grocery store are making choices as to what they can buy. And this is hitting us right at home, hitting the people that are needing it most,” said Brady, the organizer. 

Caroline Cox is a parent on the waitlist. “When we found out that all of the funding would not come through for families across the state, we were so discouraged by that,” Cox said at the rally. “We really feel after our experience with our kids, that every family in North Carolina — everyone — should have the choice to choose where to send their kids.”

Mary Ellen Merry, another parent at the rally, said that while she works at a public school, she enjoys having her daughter at a different school. She said all families should have an option.

“Our government supports financially the public schools. But I think as parents, we all pay into the system. And we should be able to choose where some of our money goes to,” Merry said. 

Parents went to Moore’s office to hand deliver their signed letter.

“So that tells me two things,” said Moore. “One, it’s amazing to me the amount of support and interest there is, I love it. Second, there’s a commitment there.”

“So the key is,” Moore said, “how do we balance making sure we take care of our priorities and not holding parents up because school starts in a few weeks?”

Down the hall, Berger told the parents to convince their House representatives. 

“We sent them a bill back in May that does nothing but clear the list, forward funds, everything,” Berger said. “All they have to do is take one vote.”

The legislature briefly reconvened this week and will continue to meet throughout the rest of the year. You can find their schedule here.