The Truth About NC School Vouchers

Ajouté : 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]No, no. I um was swimming this afternoon. It's kind of gotten windy now. So, I swam.

[00:00:10]There were kids over and then I was like, you know, I have a real hankering for some cheeseburgers.

[00:00:20]Would we wait at the doctor's for two hours or reschedule? Well, you've only been waiting 52 minutes, so you would probably be waiting Maybe she forgot. No, she is smart. She She's smart and she forget.

[00:00:37]Mhm. She's She's late. Um I had to get Amos bathed, medicineed, went to the grocery store, went to the dollar store, went to a neighbor so I could cook dinner because Amos has testing tomorrow and requested a hot dog on the grill. So, I'm doing that. So, yes, it's it's very tricky. I have autism and children and husbands and it just does not make for schedules.

[00:01:13]We've been waiting. Well, I'm impressed because if I were y'all, I might have been like, "Well, I've just had enough of waiting for her. Then don't put a time."

[00:01:23]Well, I thought that it was time.

[00:01:28]I just Have you ever forgotten anything?

[00:01:33]If you have not forgotten something, you're wonderful. One time I uh forgot a baby in the car for like three minutes.

[00:01:42]So, that is actually a real problem.

[00:01:48]This is not.

[00:01:52]Y'all should have been cooking like I was.

[00:01:56]See, you just catch. So, you want to see what I'm cooking?

[00:02:02]Well, the other thing that's not my fault is that why is it so hard to start a grill?

[00:02:09]So, I went to the grocery store. I'm making hot dogs, cheeseburgers, chicken breast, 300, more chicken, steak, and vidilia onions.

[00:02:22]Ha. How about that? I got to clean up this stuff.

[00:02:25]because um I have a senior in high school who is a carnivore and I'd like to cook for him because but I sorry then another child's calling. It's just one thing or this chicken is struggling.

[00:02:45]Yeah, I don't need maybe I don't need to move this chicken out of now. I'll put a chicken in the middle.

[00:02:53]Chicken grosses me out, right?

[00:02:57]This chicken's just flying all over the place. Okay, then we have steak here.

[00:03:04]We're going to flip that over.

[00:03:07]Whatever. I just buy whatever steak is on sale because Russell will eat all of his steak tonight and it was four for $25, which is still not cheap.

[00:03:21]Grace. Give people grace. Oh, you know who need grace? Adrian need grace. A lot of grace. He needs like grace city.

[00:03:34]You should at least apologize. I'm sorry, Donna. I'm very sorry that I'm late. Very, very sorry.

[00:03:43]Truly. I promise I wasn't just sitting around.

[00:03:53]I wait for Adrian because I like them.

[00:03:58]So, this is a question. It's a real one.

[00:04:00]If you get in a car accident and you miss something, do you apologize? Just really curious.

[00:04:06]Like, when do you have to apologize? So, right now there's this trial going on.

[00:04:11]It's very interesting to me. And it is um it happened in Virginia Beach right up the road and the dur principal is on trial because the principal ignored all these warning signs and the child took a gun to school and the teacher said that that day like, "Hey, um we think the child has a gun." And everybody was like, "No, no, they don't." And another child was like, "There's a gun. I saw it." They're like, "No gun. No gun. Not a problem.

[00:04:53]You need a meat thermometer."

[00:04:58]Well, I don't have one. So, there's that.

[00:05:03]You saw the trial today. Total negligence on the principal. I know, right?

[00:05:10]Well, tonight's topic is the school North Carolina voucher program. And what makes the North Carolina voucher program different than other voucher programs is that North Carolina has the least requirements of any state in the entire country, which is kind of interesting. The child was six years old that brought the gun to school. Yes. Um, in 2024, there was a poll in North Carolina and the majority of adults in North Carolina do not support private school voucher expansion, but it did expand last year. So, there used to be an income requirement. You had to make less than a certain amount of money. So, they what happened was no one was taking advantage of the opportunity scholarship. And so in order to get more people to take advantage of it, they had to lessen the restrictions.

[00:06:11]So let's just say for instance, you want to go skiing, okay? You're going to go skiing and they're going to give you $15 off your ski pass if you're poor, right?

[00:06:22]And if you're poor, you're probably like, uh, $15 off my ski pass, which is 180 is really not that great of a deal.

[00:06:32]So you're probably not going to go skiing, right?

[00:06:35]But if you take a rich person and you say, "Hey, you're going to Deer Valley next week. You want 15 bucks off everybody's ticket?" They're like, "Hell yeah, I'll take it." So it upped the number of people that could take the voucher because suddenly there was no income requirement. So you can be a gabillionaire and you get a voucher. The other thing they did which is interesting is before you had to have you have to have been in a public school. Well, the new program is you ain't never had to set a toe in public school. No, nothing. Do you get voucher money? No, I do not take voucher money for my children. It is one of the few things in life that I'm morally opposed to. Well, there's a few things. No, the other reason is their schools wouldn't accept a voucher. But no, I I don't think I could take a voucher. I think I really um I think private school is wonderful. I think people should have options to go private school. I do not think the taxpayers should pay for it in the way that it is set up right now in North Carolina. And again, North Carolina has no rules regarding who gets the voucher. So, you do not have to have licensed teachers. You do not have to have an attendance policy. You can choose to not serve children with disabilities. You don't have to have transportation. You don't have to have lunch available and you do not have to take any standardized test. And that's a big one to me because we're just going to hand over it'll be a billion dollars by the end of 2037. A billion dollar.

[00:08:21]That is a lot lot lot of money. Um most of the voucher money, 70% in North Carolina goes to people that live in um cities. Only 40% um 30% goes to rural area people.

[00:08:40]75% of people that get vouchers are white, which is just interesting. So last year alone, we spent $400 million on vouchers. 80,000 students took advantage of it.

[00:08:53]Um the vouchers the whole program was created by this economist I think he was from Wisconsin Milton Freriedman and it was in the 50s and his idea was like this will improve public schools. It will spark um some competition and in in the 50s it was a way for white families to avoid desegregation.

[00:09:17]So there you have it. Um, that is not why I think people necessarily use them now, though there probably is a teeny bit of that. There has never been research that evaluated the voucher program in North Carolina because the students in private schools have never taken the exams that the public schools do. I would love to see a private school that accepts vouchers take the test.

[00:09:48]I would love it. Um, you do have to take the ACT for grade 11 and 12 for opportunity scholarship. Not sure on other grades. Huh. I've never seen any data on the ACT, public and private. I have seen public data. Um the other thing that if you think about tax to me tax dollars is your area considered rural? Yes. If you think about tax dollars, it's your tax dollars and my tax dollars. And I at least want I don't want my tax dollars going to nothing, you know, personally.

[00:10:34]Let me see the chicken.

[00:10:40]The chicken is cooking.

[00:10:48]I'm basically mother of the year over here.

[00:11:05]Yikes. Okay, we're going to go get the meat thermometer.

[00:11:15]We're getting the meat thermometer.

[00:11:19]Put this corn on there, too.

[00:11:23]So, if you want to ask a question, you can because I love a question and I think it's important. I think um what we find is that the schools that are the most expensive oftentimes don't accept vouchers.

[00:11:40]and the schools that um are the most expensive, a voucher of 6,500 isn't going to help you pay a $30,000 tuition, you know?

[00:11:55]So, it kind of undoes that. But now, if you have a school, if you have a school, maybe it's a Catholic school, maybe it's a rural private school, maybe it's a school in the crevice of Raleigh, and the school might cost 4,000 a year, 5,000 a year, 6,000 a year. Then the voucher program ah the voucher program is great because the voucher will cover oh your tuition all of your tuition. So what they have found is that voucher programs have made inexpensive rural schools better because suddenly oh this is not good because suddenly people oftentimes these schools will raise their tuition to match a voucher right so if they know I mean who wouldn't so if you know the state is willing to give you I don't know but they're going to pay for your hotel room right let's just say the state is going to say I'm paying for your hotel room and you're like great they're going to pay for my hotel room this is wonderful are you going to stay at the Hampton in or are you going to stay at the Ritz Carlton if somebody's paying for my hotel room my ass staying at the Ritz Carlton right because and you'd be crazy not to just my thinking just my thinking. Um, so that's that's what we know about that A lot of problems happening here. I have a lot of Tupperware containers with no lids. It's it's truly the most bizarre thing. It It's bizarre.

[00:14:03]Um I also see this amazing public school teachers and they work their passes off and tomorrow we have testing. Amos is having his reading exam early tomorrow and he's having math on Thursday.

[00:14:18]>> What?

[00:14:20]And are you gonna pick me up in tomorrow?

[00:14:26]>> Oh, are you going to do a good job on your test?

[00:14:29]>> And Lini is going to pick me up early.

[00:14:33]>> I'm going to pick you up on in a convertible. A Solaris.

[00:14:37]>> A Solaris is a crazy ass logo with a UK and a square shield.

[00:14:47]>> That's right.

[00:14:49]triangle at the castle.

[00:14:53]>> Okay.

[00:14:54]So, Amos has um a test tomorrow and then a test on um Wednesday and Thursday. And one thing about Amos, come on honor, come is that you might say, "Well, use a voucher if you want one.

[00:15:19]private schools don't take us you know so while people in state government you know tell me oh use a voucher we can't use voucher I mean where would he go right um so there's that which is just interesting because how could you get public funding and then choose well we don't want to take them because They're kind, oh we forgot the temperature thing because he has autism. I'm not really into autism. I mean, seriously, that's the kind of stuff that's reality.

[00:15:59]That is reality. And that's not the biggest problem for me. I think that's a real problem for a lot of people. To me, the biggest problem is the whole concept of not um not having any regulations. That's the pro. That's the biggest problem for me personally. I just do not see how we can do that.

[00:16:24]You know, now we have to go and get the temperature thermometer.

[00:16:32]This is why I don't exercise because why would I exercise when I go up and down the steps 987 times a day with the dog?

[00:16:41]I like that the dog comes with me up the step as the dog thinks I might somehow give her a gigant of steak.

[00:16:52]Anybody can start a school in their basement in 10 minutes. Well, it actually I started a school a few years ago just to see how long it did take and it took me about 45 minutes. I wonder if my school is still there. Did I call it Tails?

[00:17:09]Oh, there's nothing. Um, true story. set up a school all by myself and for a while there was a woman in a town near me in Elizabeth City and I think she had her GED was her highest level of education and she was making about 80,000 a year in vouchers and evidently the kids would go to her house to school and they'd come from like 9 to 12 3 or 4 days a week. It was kind of like the parents were going to homeschool but then decided they'd enroll her in this private school. And the woman went to everybody like went to this church so people knew her. I mean, so she was making a killing pretending to to do school. Very interesting. What temperature should the meat be? That's the question.

[00:18:02]Does anybody know? Oh, it says it on the back. beef 145 70.

[00:18:11]It's 136.

[00:18:14]Okay. Well, then that's not ready. Let's try this one.

[00:18:19]142 143 144.

[00:18:23]Oh, 145. Oh, well, that one's ready then.

[00:18:29]Oh, no. That's rare.

[00:18:31]We want it to a little bit.

[00:18:38]See here.

[00:18:40]Reel into this. Oh, 150. Oh, that one's done. Oh, shoot.

[00:18:45]Hang on a minute.

[00:18:48]Put that down.

[00:18:51]165 for chicken. If there's one thing I don't like is raw chicken.

[00:18:57]Okay, steak.

[00:19:01]Let me me do this piece. Hang on.

[00:19:06]Sorry I'm so distracted. I would imagine when you get in bed at night, you fall asleep quickly.

[00:19:13]You know, one would think, but I don't always. I'll have like a really busy day and then I'll have like a real tired day. So, tomorrow is Wednesday. Amos has testing, so I'll be picking him up at um probably noonish.

[00:19:29]and we're donating his ball pit to school because he doesn't use it anymore. So, there's that. And I'm excited about that. Okay, I think this is done.

[00:19:42]This is done. Ah, wait. Turn here.

[00:19:53]Yep, it's done. Look at there. This temperature thing is awesome.

[00:19:59]Okay, we got steak.

[00:20:04]Right. Then over here we got chicken.

[00:20:07]What's the chicken supposed to be? Okay, let's test the chicken.

[00:20:11]Hold on.

[00:20:12]Tell us about senior walk. Does Amos get anxious? What's the chicken supposed to be? Does Amos get anxious about testing?

[00:20:20]Um, he doesn't seem to be. Today was senior walk at school, which is a pretty neat thing. All the seniors go, let's put this chicken in. Sorry, I got more chicken. All the seniors go and walk through all the schools they've been to over the years.

[00:20:43]So they they start out at the middle school for whatever reason, probably because it's the furthest, and then they go to the elementary school and the kids make signs and cheer for them when they come down um the hall. And Amos didn't like it as much as I hoped he would. I think it was a little loud. I mean, the band played too, which is great for the kids, but for Amos, he not really into bands. Um so there's that.

[00:21:13]But I think it was a really nice day and the Baptist church fed the kids breakfast which was awesome. And um then we had the awards ceremony for Russell and that was good. He got some awards. Tonight was scholarship night.

[00:21:29]So if you had applied for a scholarship and gotten one, you went tonight. We did not apply for any scholarships. I think if he applied for one, he didn't get one, but I don't think he did. Um, so there's that, too.

[00:21:47]Bad camera angle. I'm aware.

[00:21:51]I was going to put these. Do you think you can just put a pepper on the grill?

[00:21:55]Oh, maybe I'll wait a minute. Okay.

[00:21:59]I think this other chicken should be about done. Let's test it here a minute.

[00:22:07]Tavern Cooking. I don't know what kind of Oh, 165. Oh, yeah. That's done.

[00:22:11]That's 175.

[00:22:19]That chicken be done.

[00:22:22]I like your glasses. Thanks. You're reading glasses.

[00:22:35]Did you get to the pool? Um, I did not go to the pool, but I swam right here in the sound with Oh, that's 165, too. 165 is chicken.

[00:22:48]It's all ready then. I wouldn't have thought that was ready.

[00:22:53]Look at me. A modern day look.

[00:22:59]Russell really likes a chicken thigh.

[00:23:02]So, I have made him a whole container of chicken thighs because I am that mother. Is the water cold? No. Peppers can go on the grill. I like mine. Well done.

[00:23:16]All right. I'm I trust you then. Putting the peppers right over here. Peppers.

[00:23:23]Okay.

[00:23:27]Close that up. And then I got to put the hamburgers on.

[00:23:32]Hard to believe so much daylight out here.

[00:23:36]Yeah, it's Oh gosh, it's 8:15. I gotta get Amus in the darn bed. What a lovely day for the seniors. Oh, our school, they do such a nice job for the seniors.

[00:23:46]I mean, it's just delightful.

[00:23:49]Um, I asked my senior in high school if he could b my junior in college if he could babysit for me this weekend and he just told me that he's going to like Maryland.

[00:24:03]I like that I have children that are at this point in my life where they don't I have no idea what they're doing.

[00:24:12]Like who goes to Maryland and doesn't bring it up? Like I was planning to go to the beach to spend time with him and his assigning ain't going to be there.

[00:24:22]It'd be one thing if he was financially solvent. He's insolvent. Insolvent. Is that what he is?

[00:24:32]He's calling me to get me to buy him a raincoat and he's got more money than I do in his checking account.

[00:24:42]Maryland bey. Um anyway, so if you think, well, vouchers are great. They help people get out of bad schools. Well, they don't because if you don't ever have to go to public school, then how does it help you get out of a bad school? like who who decides what's a bad school? And we know that we know that school grades every school gets a a grade, which is why testing matters in North Carolina because school grades correlate most to poverty level. So schools like Chapel Hill that have wealthier people tend to get A's. schools that have poor people tend to get D's.

[00:25:42]Um because the the rate the grade for a school is 80% score and 20% growth. So in Chapel Hill, if you start out at the beginning of the year at a 90 and you get to a 95, you have an A, right? So you grew five points. In our school system, if we start out at a 30 and we get to an a 79, so we've grown 50 points, it doesn't really matter. It's only 20% of our grade. So, they're rewarding the final score, which I'm not against. I mean, you shouldn't be you shouldn't be penalized. It shouldn't just be 80% growth. But if you're really judging on teachers teaching, then it should be growth. Are you judging on teachers teaching or are you judging on the type of children that go to your school?

[00:26:36]You know, it's a question. It's a real question.

[00:26:42]What are you judging? We pretend that we're judging the teachers teaching, but then why isn't growth 80%.

[00:26:52]You know, ask your representative that, ask your senator that. Are we do we want to know if teachers are teaching?

[00:27:00]Because I don't think we do.

[00:27:02]We want people to get out of the public school system because it is cheaper to give them a voucher than to keep them at the public school. And the people at the general assembly have no long-term plan.

[00:27:16]It's like a person that doesn't want to plant a tree because they're not going to be here to see it get big. That's how they are. They want to save money this second instead of saying, "Well, you know what? Maybe this is going to cost me a little bit more right now, but after I'm gone, the state of North Carolina is going to be better.

[00:27:34]So, if you have somebody that they don't want to plant trees because they're not going to be here, don't vote for those people. And they're kind of who that that's the people in charge right now. I hate to say it, but it's just the truth.

[00:27:51]So, schools in higher income areas get more money here. Every school gets the same amount per student regardless of location. Yes. Many states, Where are you, Kelsey? Vermont does the same thing, which is an awesome thing. North Carolina does not do that. It depends where you I just I just saw somebody. It depends where you live. So you get um kind of a base amount and then depending on your property tax that determines your subsidy for a teacher. So some subsidies in a county might be $200 and some counties might have a $13,000 subsidy. So you have to think, are people going to where do they want to work, right? What gives you an incentive to work? um in rural eastern North Carolina, you know, there's not much of one, especially where we live because we're high tourist. It's expensive to live here. I mean, it's not like it's cheap to live here. So, you're paying the same that you would in Raleigh to live, but you're making half as much or making a lot a lot more than half as much.

[00:29:08]Um it's It's worth noting.

[00:29:15]It's worth noting, but yes, there are states um in our country do offer the same amount. And we had this lawsuit called the Leandra case, and it was recently decided that it was um the Supreme Court. Somebody had ruled that there's inequity because education is in our state constitution.

[00:29:36]Is it equitable? It is not equitable. I mean, nobody thinks it's equitable, but the question is, does anybody want to do anything about it? Where I would think, why wouldn't you live in a place like this? Like, I'm sitting here looking at the water, living two hours from Raleigh. We have 10 friends that would move from Raleigh and live in Edon in a heartbeat if they thought their kids could get an education like they can in Raleigh. And it's not because they're better teachers. Again, remember we're not looking at growth. We're looking at final score. It's because there is more money. There are more resources.

[00:30:18]There is just more money. And if you have more money, you can do more things.

[00:30:23]It's why I don't have a swimming pool.

[00:30:25]If I had more money, I would have a pool. But I don't.

[00:30:29]Um, it is about money. And people will say, "It doesn't matter about the money."

[00:30:36]Tell that to a principal in a district like mine. Tell them that money doesn't matter.

[00:30:43]You know, give me a freaking break.

[00:30:48]It matters so much that it it's will almost blow your mind. And North Carolina used to be great. We were like cream of the crop. I mean, we were known we were a big deal back in the day. And now it's it's going lower and lower because the more children that we move to voucher schools, the more tax money that saves North Carolinians. But the problem is it might save you money today, you know, but in 30 years when those kids are more likely to be in jail, use public subsidies, um not have employment, how much is it going to cost us them? A lot. But it doesn't help us today. You know, right now I'm paying for two children to go to NC State. It would be cheaper if I didn't pay for them to go to state. If I just said, you know what, you're going to work. You don't need to go to state.

[00:31:47]And that would save me, how much would that save me? 50,000 a year after taxes.

[00:31:53]So that's about 75, right? But in the long run, 30 I'm going for 30 years down the road. I'm looking at these boys that are going to have college degrees. I hope they'll go on to business school and someday these boys are going to be taking me on vacation.

[00:32:09]So, in the long run, it's an investment for me, right? It's an investment.

[00:32:19]It's just the truth.

[00:32:23]So you can have people that want to invest in the next generation and you can have a people that want to invest in themselves today and those are the many of the people and unfortunately right now it's very clear who they are at in the general assembly.

[00:32:42]You know when you pay somebody 13,000 a year you're not going to get a rocket scientist up there helping you make decisions.

[00:32:50]It's a shame and it's true. How do I know when corn is done?

[00:33:05]True story.

[00:33:07]My grandson goes on student loans. Yes.

[00:33:11]Yes. And student loans are an awesome thing. Is college really an investment?

[00:33:18]Well, it was for me, I guess.

[00:33:23]Yeah. I couldn't have the moniker educated debutant if I hadn't gone to college.

[00:33:32]Um, I mean, my dad always said, you got to do something that helps you have a job. And you're right, maybe you go and you become a lineman or maybe you get your engineering degree. I think owning owning your own business is the best thing on the planet, right? If you work, you make money. If you don't work, you don't. You get good tax breaks, whatever. Oh, chilly.

[00:34:03]My chili is burning.

[00:34:06]This is called I'm like a full-on chef up here. I just would like some credit for this.

[00:34:16]You have lost a week.

[00:34:20]Oh, now it's getting dark. Amos.

[00:34:25]Amos.

[00:34:29]It's almost bedtime.

[00:34:33]Did you hear mommy?

[00:34:36]>> Okay. How long?

[00:34:39]>> How about How about five minutes?

[00:34:43]Okay.

[00:34:46]15. Okay.

[00:34:48]Doesn't really keep up with time well.

[00:34:49]So, just want him. Nobody is here. My children aren't here. My husband's not here. And I'm just sitting here cooking.

[00:34:59]The burning chef.

[00:35:03]Really is true. I'm really not an amazing cook.

[00:35:10]His name is Amos.

[00:35:12]Amos smarty pants.

[00:35:22]I worry so much about the future. I I don't really worry, but I do think it's worth shoot. Oh, there it is. I don't know if worrying is necessarily helpful, but I do think it's valuable to have real conversations. Come on, honor.

[00:35:40]you know, and to understand how things work.

[00:35:51]Oh, that darn bird has a giant something like a bunny or something.

[00:35:57]Maybe a fish.

[00:35:59]Anyway, thanks for tuning in. I really am sorry that I was an hour late.

[00:36:05]Very sorry.

[00:36:08]Um folks, look forward to coffee chat tomorrow morning. We'll be talking about Amos testing plans. Okay.