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School Choice Expansion Breaks Record
Special Report - July 6, 2011
A national school choice advocacy group reports that in the first six months of 2011 alone, 11 states, including North Carolina, enacted school choice legislation in the form of school vouchers or tax credit programs—more than any other previous year. According to the analysis by the American Federation for Children (ACF), a total of 42 states considered school choice measures in 2011, while 11 states and the United States Congress passed legislation expanding school choice. Congress enacted a law that reauthorizes and expands the Washington, D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. New school choice programs were created in seven of those 11 states, specifically in Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, North Carolina and Wisconsin. The ACF report notes that this represents the largest number of states in the nation’s history to enact new school choice legislation, easily breaking the previous record in 2006, when five new school choice programs were enacted.
North Carolina is highlighted in the report as one of seven states to create a new school choice program. As we previously reported, North Carolina lawmakers approved legislation to create a tax credit program for the parents of children with special needs, and Governor Perdue recently allowed the bill, HB 344-Tax Credits for Children With Disabilities, to become law without her signature. According to ACF, this makes North Carolina the eighth state in the nation to enact a private school choice program for children with special needs (Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Utah provide similar programs). Additionally, North Carolina lawmakers also expanded parental choice in education earlier this summer by removing the arbitrary cap on the number of charter schools allowed to operate in the state at one time. Governor Perdue signed the measure, SB 8-No Cap on Number of Charter Schools, into law on June 17.
Related resources:
Pro-Family Bills Become Law - July 1, 2011
2011 Legislative Review - June 22, 2011
Arizona School Choice Upheld - April 5, 2011
Charter School Cheekmate - FNC - Summer 2010
Copyright © 2012. North Carolina Family Policy Council. All rights reserved.
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