NC: Vouchers For Ghost Students

In 2017, a Duke Law School study looked at how North Carolina's voucher program was going. Here's just a slice of what they concluded:

In comparison to most other states, North Carolina’s general system of oversight of private schools is weak. North Carolina’s limited oversight reflects a policy decision to leave the quality control function primarily to individual families. Under North Carolina law, private schools are permitted to make their own decisions regarding curriculum, graduation requirements, teacher qualifications, number of hours/days of operation, and, for the most part, testing. No accreditation is required of private schools.

Those first three of the voucher program also saw 93% of voucher students attending private religious schools. 2017 was also the year that the legislature set out to pump millions more into their voucher system, and this year they've been working at expanding it even more by expanding it to include the wealthy and those who already send their children to private school. 

So it's worth noting the analysis just released by Kris Nordstrom, senior policy analyst at the Education & Law Project at the North Carolina Justice Center. 

Nordstrom checked some simple figures. How many students did the school report enrolling? How many vouchers did the state send them?

In 62 instances, the state sent schools more money than the school reportedly had students. 

Some of these could easily be clerical quirks, particularly in some of the tiny schools involved. Increase Learning Center Rockingham (faith-based daycare) reports an enrollment of 4 and received vouchers for 5. Okay. There are lots of explanations for that.

But here's Brittain Academy Guilford reporting 72 students enrolled and 87 vouchers. North Shore Academy Onslow in 2020 reported 14 students and received 17 vouchers; then in 2021 they reported 14 students and received 38 vouchers! Riverside Christian Academy-- 16 students enrolled, and 55 vouchers! At $6492 per student, that's a heck of a windfall. Mitchener University Academy reported an enrollment of 72 and collected 149 vouchers-- so about $230,000 of taxpayer money handed over for non-existent students.

Those voucher dollars add up. Nordstrom figures about $2.3 million in fraudulent payments of taxpayer money to private schools.

And that's not counting the 23 schools that kept receiving vouchers even though they stopped reporting to the state (DNPE) altogether. As Nordstrom notes in one example, Crossroads Christian School of Statesville stopped reporting in 2020, but still collected $57,300 in voucher money that year.

If you're a person who cares about accountability for taxpayer dollars spent or someone who wants to see greater transparency and efficiency in education spending, this can't be the sort of thing you have in mind.