RALEIGH, N.C. — Addressing a sharp increase in private-school grant applications, North Carolina Republicans advanced legislation on Wednesday to spend hundreds of millions of dollars now to eliminate a large waiting list this fall for Opportunity Scholarships and to permanently meet expected higher demand.
GOP lawmakers dramatically expanded the program last year by doing away with income eligibility caps that had limited the scholarships, sometimes known as vouchers, to low-income and more recently some middle-income families. Now any family can qualify, even the wealthiest income earners among those on the wait list.
Senate Democrats on Wednesday criticized the proposed spending while they say public schools — which still educate most of the state’s children — could use money to boost teacher salaries further, hire more school nurses and social workers and comply with longstanding education spending litigation.