Being a community servant at heart is why state House Rep. Raymond E. Smith Jr. says he is running for the District 4 Senate seat covering Wayne, Wilson and Greene
Publisher s Note: This post appears here courtesy of the Carolina Journal. The author of this post is David N. Bass.
Photo: Maya Reagan / Carolina Journal
A bill to expand the Opportunity Scholarship Program passed the N.C. House, 69-49, on Tuesday, April 13, following a floor debate that focused on accountability.
Created in 2013, Opportunity Scholarships are designed to help families who would otherwise struggle to afford private-school tuition but who want to leave their locally zoned public school.
House Bill 32 would remove the current scholarship cap of $4,200 per year and substitute a formula allowing scholarship recipients to share in 70% of the funding the state sets aside per pupil. That figure eventually scales up to 80%.
A bill to expand the Opportunity Scholarship Program passed the N.C. House, 69-49, on Tuesday, April 13, following a floor debate that focused on accountability.
Created in 2013, Opportunity Scholarships are designed to help families who would otherwise struggle to afford private-school tuition but who want to leave their locally zoned public school.
House Bill 32 would remove the current scholarship cap of $4,200 per year and substitute a formula allowing scholarship recipients to share in 70% of the funding the state sets aside per pupil. That figure eventually scales up to 80%.
Students would qualify for up to $4,610 a year and then ratcheting up to $5,269, based on current per-pupil funding rates. The bill adds an extra financial kicker in the form of permitting local school districts to allocate an additional $1,000 in local funding per scholarship recipient, on top of the state funding.