Delicia Hare is trying so hard to help her son, Christian. She applied for and received an Opportunity Scholarship so Christian can thrive in a school that meets his needs, which wasn’t the case in a traditional public school classroom. And now, North Carolina liberals and their powerful allies are using the courts to try and deny Delicia and Christian this opportunity. It’s heartbreaking.
Whether Hare’s son and about 1,200 other children in North Carolina can continue to use vouchers from the Opportunity Scholarship Program will come before the N.C. Supreme Court in the coming days. The state’s highest court is scheduled to hear an appeal of a lower court’s ruling that the Opportunity Scholarship Program violates the N.C. Constitution. The hearing is slated for Feb. 24.
Last August, Superior Court Judge Robert Hobgood ruled that the Opportunity Scholarship Program violated a number of the provisions of the N.C. Constitution. He said that providing taxpayer money for the vouchers without curriculum or teacher certification requirements “does not accomplish a public purpose.”
He also said the program ran afoul of the state’s landmark Leandro decision, which required the state to provide every child with the opportunity to have a “sound, basic education.”
Representatives from two plaintiff groups who brought the lawsuits, the N.C. Association of Educators and the N.C. School Boards Association, did not respond to requests for comment.
At the time the lawsuit was filed, NCAE President Rodney Ellis said, “Vouchers for private schools are an affront to a state that has a long and cherished history of public education. … Using public money to pay for private schools is part of a broad assault on public schools — and on the constitution of our state.”
Will the Supreme Court let the powerful liberal elite in this state prevent this mom from helping her child? We await their decision.
