There are now over 100,000 Opportunity Scholarship recipients. The scholarship provides vouchers for K-12 students to attend North Carolina private schools. Last school year, more than 75% of the scholarship funds, or $329 million, went to faith-based schools. 

Some argue that tax dollars going toward religious private schools violates the principle of the separation of church and state. Others, like former Democratic state representative Marcus Brandon, disagree. 

“I don’t care what a parent chooses,” Brandon said. “And if they choose a private school, if they choose a charter school or a public school, that is OK with me. As long as it’s safe and the kid can thrive.”

Brandon was one of the four primary sponsors of the Opportunity Scholarship Act that created the private school vouchers in 2013. Last November, state lawmakers increased funding for the program by $463 million. 

“In our country, a Muslim could start a school; a Buddhist can start a school, a Christian can start a school,” said Brandon, also the executive director of CarolinaCAN, a pro-school choice advocacy group. “We would have to have state-sponsored religion, and the legislation would read only Christian schools can be started. And that is the only way that it is unconstitutional.” 

Rob Boston, the senior adviser for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, supports parents who choose to send their children to private schools with their own money, but is against taxpayer dollars going toward religious schools. 

“Of course, the Supreme Court doesn’t agree with us but when you tax everybody and turn that money over to a religious group that uses it to further its particular theological perspective, we believe that is in fact a backdoor form of a church tax and should be seen as a violation of separation of church and state,” Boston said. 

Recipients are awarded between $3,458 and $7,686, depending on household income, though there is no maximum limit. This money goes directly to the qualifying private school the student will attend for tuition and fees. According to data from the N.C. State Education Assistance Authority, at least 60% of eligible schools were faith-based last school year.

Mark Storslee, a UNC Chapel Hill associate law professor, says this does not violate the separation of church and state but is parental choice. He focuses on the First Amendment and its two religious clauses. 

“We basically have on the establishment clause side, law kind of specifying that in many situations, funding for private religious schools among other schools is permissible,” he said. “And we have on the free exercise side, basically law saying that where a state chooses to fund private education, funding religious schools might not only be permitted but actually required.” 

Storslee said denying funding to religious private schools while funding secular private schools is discrimination.

“Most of the bullying that takes place in the public school,” Brandon said. “What are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to kill themselves? And that’s the reality for a lot of LGBT kids.” 

Boston countered that private schools aren’t the solution. “A lot of private religious schools teach things that Americans ought to be concerned about,” he said. “They might not teach modern science. They might teach creationism instead. They teach children that it is sinful and wrong to be LGBTQ plus.”

Grace Christian School in Sanford received the largest amount from vouchers last year at more than $5 million. The school’s website states: “We believe that any form of homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, fornication, adultery, and pornography are not in obedience to God’s will and word.” 

“If you see a school that does not align — and that’s not only with LGBT things — that’s with just your personal values, period, then you would be a dummy to send your child there,” Brandon said. “You have options.”

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