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Education Freedom in North Carolina

Education Freedom in North Carolina

Students at Kernodle Middle School in Greensboro, N.C., Aug. 23, 2021.



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WOODY MARSHALL/Associated Press

Education reformers might not have had North Carolina on their universal school-choice wish lists this year, but 2023 has been full of good surprises when it comes to education freedom.

All 30 North Carolina Republican state senators signed on to a universal school-choice bill that was introduced last month, giving them precisely the three-fifths supermajority needed to override the expected veto from Democratic Gov.

Roy Cooper.

He has made his opposition clear, despite sending his own child to one of the private schools he assails as “unaccountable.”

In the 120-member state House, Republicans were one seat short of the 72-vote veto-override threshold—until Rep. Tricia Cotham, a Democrat, announced her switch to the Republican Party last Wednesday. “On issues like school choice, like charters, we have to evolve,” Ms. Cotham said in explaining her change of party. “One-size-fits-all in education is wrong for children.”

It isn’t certain all House Republicans in North Carolina will vote for universal school choice this year, but in the past two weeks 17 of them signed on to another bill that would expand the state’s existing scholarship program. Ms. Cotham’s support clears the path forward.

Mr. DeAngelis is a senior fellow at the American Federation for Children.

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Appeared in the April 10, 2023, print edition.

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