Liberal Lawsuit Challenges Life-Enhancing Scholarship | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: This article, by Donna Martinez, who co-hosts Carolina Journal Radio and blogs at "Right Angles", appeared on John Hood's daily column in the Carolina Journal, which, because of Author / Publisher Hood, is linked to the John Locke Foundation.

    RALEIGH     He is unable to walk like kids his age, but my niece's son gave his family the best gift ever when he pulled himself up and balanced against a fence while playing in the Arizona sunshine. It was a blessing for his parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles who, every single day, deal with disabilities that stem from his premature birth.

    It is children like this sweet little boy who will benefit from the compassion of North Carolina's Republican-led General Assembly. Earlier this year, legislators approved a scholarship for families of school-aged kids with special needs  -  families who face formidable education challenges not being met by the traditional public school system. By transitioning the existing special-needs tax credit to a scholarship, more North Carolina families  -  including kids whose parents were too poor to pay taxes  -  can now qualify for help.

    House Speaker Pro Tem Paul "Skip" Stam, R-Wake, estimates that around 1,000 students will benefit from the new special-needs scholarship next year. To qualify, a child must have a documented disability. Expenses of up to $6,000 per year are covered, including tuition and home-school education services. A family's income is irrelevant; the goal is to help these children.

    And they couldn't need it more.

    State test scores show that just 6.6 percent of the 91,260 public school students with disabilities who were tested in grades three through eight are proficient in reading and math. That means 85,198 kids in this group are well behind where they should be. Only 70 of the 1,030 kids with multiple disabilities  -  like my niece's son  -  scored high enough to be deemed performing at or above grade level. In other words, 93.2 percent of those with multiple disabilities are far, far behind. Of the 868 tested children with a hearing impairment in grades three through eight, just 74 of them  -  8.5 percent  -  are proficient in reading and math.

    The new special-needs education scholarship can be used at any private school or facility of the parents' choice. It allows them to select the learning environment that's best for their child and family. No more worrying about falling through the cracks of a well-intentioned but overburdened public school system. No more sleepless nights wondering how to pay for critical and costly services.

    This scholarship isn't merely about delivering services. The legislature has given parents tangible hope, allowing them to focus on the love a special-needs child brings to a family, not just the challenges.

    But the special-needs scholarship could be in jeopardy due to legal challenges against a separate educational lifeline the legislature approved, this one for low-income parents  -  the new $4,200 per year opportunity scholarship. The North Carolina Association of Educators and the liberal advocacy group N.C. Justice Center lead a lawsuit that claims giving low-income kids scholarships to private schools violates the North Carolina Constitution. An additional suit filed by the North Carolina School Boards Association alleges the low-income scholarship gives money to schools that discriminate.

    In a radio interview I conducted with Rep. Stam for Curtis Media Group, I asked him if the special-needs scholarship could be struck down if legal challenges to the low-income scholarship are successful. "Well, it wouldn't per se," Stam said, "but every argument they make in those lawsuits would do away with the special-needs scholarships and would do away with needs-based scholarships at the college level as well."

    Let's be clear. Powerful left-of-center groups who say their mission is to protect children and seek justice are actively engaged in a legal effort that could result in the exact opposite outcome. If they prevail, thousands of kids may be denied an opportunity to achieve  -  an opportunity their parents have determined the traditional public system is not providing.

    Ask yourself where you would turn if your special-needs child was being left behind. You wouldn't take the same failed path over and over again and simply cross your fingers. But that is exactly what the liberal education establishment and its allies want the courts to force moms and dads to do.

    That alarming reality is why we must thank the school-choice majority in the General Assembly for standing up for these children.