As the far-left NCAE sues to kill the Opportunity Scholarship school choice program, new polling indicates support for the program is through the roof. Polling released today shows “fully 62% of respondents favor [Opportunity Scholarships] compared to just 28% who oppose.”
Opportunity Scholarships are grants of $4,200 per student that can be used to pay tuition at private schools, and that value will increase to more than $5,900 next year. Families with a household income below 175% of the free and reduced lunch threshold are eligible. For a family of four, that income figure is about $85,000 per year.
The idea behind the program, which the Republican-led legislature created in 2013, is to provide lower- and middle-income families with the same education options as better-off families.
Sen. Deanna Ballard (R-Watauga) said, “A private education shouldn’t be available only to those who can afford it. The Opportunity Scholarship program empowers parents with the resources to send their children to the same school as better off families if they choose.”
The far-left NCAE is suing to kill the program, even as polling shows it’s wildly popular and the number of Opportunity Scholarship recipients has grown exponentially since 2013.
Sen. Ballard continued, “This is going to the battle line of the next year: parents versus bureaucrats. I side with empowering parents by letting education money follow the child. We need to fund students, not systems.”