More than 40,000 North Carolina students have applied so far to receive state funding to attend a K-12 private school next fall. That's the number of brand new applicants who met the March priority deadline for the state's Opportunity Scholarship program.
In other words, that's 40,089 North Carolina students who have never before received this school voucher.
That figure doesn't include the who received a subsidy during the current 2024-2025 school year and still can reapply for next school year. Those students have until April 15 to apply to renew their vouchers. Plus other new applicants can still apply, but if funds run out, they won't take priority over renewals and applicants who met the March deadline.
The taxpayer-funded grants are worth between $3,458 and $7,686 per student, depending on a student鈥檚 household income, to apply toward tuition at participating private schools.
How much funding is available for Opportunity Scholarship awards?
Even before lawmakers hammer out budget negotiations this legislative session, the state鈥檚 base budget includes $600 million for Opportunity Scholarship awards this coming fall and $655 million dollars in the following school year.
In 2023, the North Carolina General Assembly eliminated any income cap for families receiving Opportunity Scholarships, starting with the 2024-2025 school year.
Then, after new applications flooded in, cleared a wait list of new students who applied. In November, Republican lawmakers overrode the governor鈥檚 veto to pass that funding.
Most of the students who received vouchers this current school year had already enrolled in a private school last August, before lawmakers successfully passed funding to clear the waitlist. Now, any applicants who weren't able to take advantage of the delayed funding last fall can apply for an Opportunity Scholarship for fall 2025.
Thousands of voucher applicants have benefited from NC eliminating the income cap
The recent expansion of the Opportunity Scholarship program is benefiting many wealthy students.
Before North Carolina lawmakers lifted the income cap in 2023, Opportunity Scholarships were available to children from households with an income no greater than 200% of the limit to qualify for federal reduced price lunch. That threshold would have disqualified all children in income tiers 3 and 4.
The North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority, which administers the program, requires applicants to answer a few questions to calculate their household income.
More than 6,600 Opportunity Scholarship applicants fall into tier 4 for household incomes above $267,000 for a family of four. The income limits vary by household size.
The median household income in North Carolina, for any size household, was $70,089 in 2023.
About 43%, or 17,034, of the new applicants fall into either of the top two tiers, where the minimum threshold is defined as students coming from households with incomes above $119,000 for a family of four.
A majority of the new applicants, 58%, fall into the two lower income tiers. Those applicants can receive voucher awards of around $7,000 or more to put toward private school tuition.
Opportunity Scholarship applicants who do not provide income data are placed in the highest income tier. Applicants who fall in the lower two income tiers qualify for larger scholarships, so there is an incentive to provide income information.
