Celebrating School Choice Week in North Carolina | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the John Locke Foundation. The author of this post is Brittany Raymer.

    It's North Carolina's National School Choice Week, and the John Locke foundation and other partners are celebrating this important issue. The latest Civitas Poll also shows a growing support for more school choice and parent autonomy when it comes to their child's education.

    As children were sent home and parents became the defacto teacher during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the trust in the U.S. public education system began to slowly erode. Families were discovering that education wasn't always the sole focus, but sometimes drifted into indoctrination, especially when it comes to LGBTQ+ issues and critical race theory (as often exposed by LibsofTikTok), and that teachers were more interested in staying at home than being in the classroom.

    School choice is an opportunity for parents to choose what schooling environment fits best for them and their family.

    One father at the recently held North Carolina's National School Choice Week Celebration, where the John Locke Foundation was one of the representatives, shared that one of his nine children would cry when it came time for math lessons, while another did math for fun and relaxation. He had another child who seemed to pick up a book and be able to read, without hardly any instruction, while another struggles and is behind.

    All children are different, and some have different needs than others when it comes to their education environment. School choice says that families should be able to access the school that fits best for their child and their family, whether that be public, private or homeschooling.

    And the people of North Carolina agree.

    In the latest Civitas Poll, 82.9% respondents agreed that a "child's parent or guardian" is "best suited to determine where a child should attend school."

    When it comes to charter schools, which have the same standards as public schools but are under the control of an independent school board, about 68.6% of people either strongly support or somewhat support these alternative educational institutions.

    Due to the support for school choice, the state has offered the NC Opportunity Scholarship, which offers "government-funded vouchers of up to $6,168 to low and moderate-income students that can be applied to tuition at a private school of their parents' choice. Of those polled, 67.3% are in favor of this type of program.

    School choice is the way of the future.