It’s not hard to believe that a body of decision makers who have gerrymandered their majority in the North Carolina General Assembly and who have consistently attacked the public school system would still consider expanding vouchers in the wake of Hurricane Helene.

Two summers ago, 19 eastern NC superintendents wrote a letter explicitly stating that expanding vouchers was a terrible idea and would hurt their public schools.

Just this past week, another editorial in the most circulated newspaper in the western part of the state vehemently stated that expanding vouchers in NC was not in the best interest of the state.

Rep. Lindsay Prather said pushing for a voucher expansion in the wake of Helene is “unconscionable” and “frankly disgusting,” given the amount of money required to rebuild and that lawmakers have yet to pass a funding bill that provides direct grants to help small businesses in the region.

And for those people who still are not convinced that the voucher system in North Carolina known as the Opportunity Grants, then maybe this report from Propublica.org that specifically investigates the NC’s version of subsidizing private schoosl tuitions to religious institutions will help.

Private schools across the South that were established for white children during desegregation are now benefiting from tens of millions in taxpayer dollars flowing from rapidly expanding voucher-style programs, a ProPublica analysis found.

In North Carolina alone, we identified 39 of these likely “segregation academies” that are still operating and that have received voucher money. Of these, 20 schools reported student bodies that were at least 85% white in a 2021-22 federal survey of private schools, the most recent data available.

Those 20 academies, all founded in the 1960s and 1970s, brought in more than $20 million from the state in the past three years alone. None reflected the demographics of their communities. Few even came close.

Northeast Academy, a small Christian school in rural Northampton County on the Virginia border, is among them. As of the 2021-22 survey, the school’s enrollment was 99% white in a county that runs about 40% white.

The NC General Assembly is supposedly coming back in session just to vote on voucher expansion.

With what has happened in the western part of the state these past few weeks, what has been communicated by system superintendents Down East, and what reports like this one from Propublica clearly show, expanding vouchers in this state would constitute absolutely one of the most selfish acts of baseless legislation in our state’s history.

All for a fake narrative shining with the veneer of cheap varnish.