Credibility Crisis: Cooper Tells Parents Only He Can Decide What Type of Education is Best for Their Kids

Massive popularity of Opportunity Scholarship program leads Cooper to crusade against parent choice

Tens of thousands of caring parents, including Gov. Roy Cooper, chose to send a child to private school, presumably because they believed their children would learn better in that environment.

Their choices underscore the truth of this premise: It’s better when parents have options in where to educate their children, and the more options the better.

That basic premise has guided North Carolina education policy for more than a decade. Traditional public schools, public magnet schools, public charter schools, private schools, home schools – the diversity of options available to North Carolina parents is a strength, not a weakness.

But Gov. Roy Cooper would take many of those options off the table by eliminating the Opportunity Scholarship program.

At bottom, the debate centers on the most basic of questions: Who should have the final call in deciding what type of education is best for a child?

We strongly believe parents should have the final call. Every policy choice flows from that basic principle.

If parents should have the final call, then parents should have options to choose from. If parents are to have options to choose from, then public education dollars should be available to fund those options, and the more options the better.

In the end, moms and dads will decide which school is best for their sons and daughters. The large majority will almost certainly decide on the local zoned public school. It’s there, it’s convenient, other neighborhood kids go there, and it’s usually a fine fit. When it’s not a fine fit, mom and dad will go elsewhere, and the public funds set aside for educating children should go where the education is happening.

But Gov. Roy Cooper’s crusade against Opportunity Scholarships rests on a different answer to that basic question. He seems to believe that he – or bureaucrats who report to him – should have the final call in deciding what type of education is best for a child.

His policy preferences flow from that basic principle. If bureaucrats have the final call, then options don’t matter much. If options don’t matter much, then public education dollars should flow entirely to the zoned schools and nowhere else.

We fundamentally disagree with Gov. Cooper’s position. We believe parents are better suited than bureaucrats to decide where to send a child. We believe parents should have an array of options for their children’s schooling, and the more options the better.

Most of all, we believe as many parents as possible should have the same choice Gov. Cooper and tens of thousands of others had: whether to send a child to private school or not.

This year, 72,000 North Carolina moms and dads sought the same for their children by applying for an Opportunity Scholarship. Last week, state officials were only able to notify 13,511 that they qualified for an award.

As legislators prepare to return to Raleigh, we believe they should ignore Gov. Cooper's crusade against parent choice and fully fund the program for all applicants.