Cooper calls to spend Opportunity Scholarships funds on disaster relief

As the state legislature prepares to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of HB 10, which passed in September, Cooper is using this fall’s Helene disaster make his case against the Opportunity Scholarship school choice program.

On Tuesday, the North Carolina General Assembly (NCGA) is expected to override HB 10, which includes budget adjustments, requiring sheriffs to cooperate with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and funding to clear the waitlist for North Carolina’s Opportunity Scholarships program.

“Helene was the most devastating storm our state has ever seen, and there is a long and expensive road of recovery ahead for Western North Carolina,” said Cooper in a press release Friday. “Legislators should invest billions of dollars in Western North Carolina recovery instead of locking in billions for private school vouchers.”

Roughly 55,000 students are on the waitlist for Opportunity Scholarships, or state-funded education vouchers. They are awarded to families on a sliding scale based on household income, with the lowest income families served first. In February, 72,000 applications were received for the scholarship program, a record-breaking number.  The waitlisted families were left hanging earlier this summer when the NCGA failed to fully fund the program.

HB 10 allocates $463 million to clear the waitlist. This includes $248 million in nonrecurring funds for the current school year. The other half is $215.15 million in recurring funds for the scholarship awards for the 2026 fiscal year.

Meantime, Helene caused $53 billion in damages in western North Carolina. In an effort to make his case, Cooper’s press release says eight out of the 25 disaster-impacted schools have one or no schools participating in the program. 

“Gov. Cooper provides a false choice,” said Brian Balfour, VP of Research at the John Locke Foundation. “Thanks to sound fiscal policies over the past decade the state is well-equipped to fund hurricane relief and provide school choice for thousands of more North Carolina families. If instead they would have followed Cooper’s urges to spend rather than save budget surpluses the state would not have any funds to do either.”

The first round of Helene recover money, The Disaster Recovery Act of 2024 (HB149), was signed by Gov. Cooper on October 10th and allocated $273 million to disaster relief efforts. The second round of funding, SB 743, which totaled $644 million, was passed by the NCGA on October 24th and signed by Cooper on October 25th.

These two funding packages total over $900 million for disaster relief efforts. State lawmakers plan to pass a third relief package this week while they are in session.

 In October, Cooper called for spending $3.9 billion to rebuild infrastructure, homes, businesses, schools, and farms damaged by Helene. He says that future state spending could be impacted by “tax cuts for the wealthy passed by Republican leadership,” triggering a state budget shortfall predicted by the Office of State Budget and Management (OSBMB).

Government policy experts say this is not a zero-sum game; this is not either fund this or fund that. 

“I agree with Cooper’s commitment to helping families and businesses in Western North Carolina, said Dr. Bob Luebke, Director of the Center for Effective Education at the John Locke Foundation, told the Carolina Journal. “Because of prudent budget practices however, North Carolina now has a healthy savings reserve of around $4 billion.  The truth is, North Carolina can afford to help hurricane victims and aid parents who want expanded education options. It’s not the either/or situation that Gov. Cooper is advocating. Lawmakers have the opportunity to help both groups and they should.”  

I’m not sure I’ve heard a more disingenuous rendering of facts surrounding state-based hurricane relief funding or Opportunity Scholarship funding. #ncpol https://t.co/ymSiMwrnGg

— Donald Bryson (@donaldbryson) November 18, 2024

The post Cooper calls to spend Opportunity Scholarships funds on disaster relief first appeared on Carolina Journal.