Seven North Carolina parents have filed a lawsuit in Wake County Superior Court contending that the state’s school voucher program is unconstitutional, in part because it provides funds to schools that discriminate against students or their families on religious grounds.
The Charlotte Observer reports that the lawsuit, filed with support from the North Carolina Association of Educators and the National Education Association, challenges the state’s Opportunity Scholarship Program, which pays $4,200 per year toward tuition at private schools.
Supporters of the program say it gives parents more choice in educating their children. Opponents say it siphons millions of tax dollars away from public schools each year and requires little accountability from private schools that receive the funds.
The suit seeks to halt the disbursement of funds through the vouchers.
Many religious private schools have policies barring the enrollment of or allowing the expulsion of students who refute the school’s statements of faith. Students also can be barred from some schools if their parents’ beliefs don’t conform.
The suit contends that the voucher program directs funds to schools “that divide communities on religious lines, disparage many North Carolinians’ faiths and identities, and coerce families into living under religious dictates.”
It also argues that the program discriminates against students and parents “based on who they love or the gender they know themselves to be, and against those with religious beliefs that do not condemn homosexuality, bisexuality, or gender non-conformity.
The state supreme court ruled in 2015 that North Carolina could use public tax dollars to help children attend private and religious schools.
Donald Bryson, CEO of the Civitas Institute, says the latest lawsuit makes essentially the same argument as the earlier lawsuit, Hart vs. State of North Carolina.
“None of the facts of the program have changed," says Bryson. “It’s the same argument. They’re just trying to argue against religious education.”
