Universal school choice funding, ICE cooperation are law in North Carolina

Funding is secure to erase waiting lists for school choice in North Carolina, and sheriffs are required by law to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Voting 30-19 in favor of override to Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto, the state Senate on Wednesday afternoon bookended the House of Representatives’ 72-44 override one day earlier to make House Bill 10 law.

Require ICE Cooperation & Budget Adjustments becomes law immediately and has impacts on the 2023-24 academic year retroactively and for coming years.

Roughly $463 million is appropriated to the Opportunity Scholarship program. The removal of income limits for families drove up interest, and about 55,000 were waiting to get into the school of their choice regardless of traditional public, public charter or private.

In North Carolina, traditional public schools mostly go by a district’s mapping plan. In some districts, open enrollment within the district exists.

Proponents say universal school choice allows investment in education through the students, not the system. Critics say traditional public schools are being eroded for the wealthy, and students are sent to schools with less standards to meet. The latter critique is usually rebutted by supply, demand and the two centuries old principle of freedom to choose; meaning, if a school is failing to meet the needs of the students, families walk away, something they can’t do in most cases with the traditional public school assignments.