New Report: NC Private Voucher School Curriculum Review

A new report published by Public Schools First NC reviews the curriculum used by North Carolina private schools that accept taxpayer-funded tuition vouchers.

RALEIGH, NC, UNITED STATES, June 17, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Public Schools First NC has released a new report: NC K-12 Private Schools 2024-25: A Review of Curriculum! This new report was inspired by previous work examining the North Carolina Opportunity Scholarship voucher program. This statement from School Vouchers in North Carolina: The First Three Years (Children’s Law Clinic & Duke Law School) released shortly after the program launched in 2014 remains true: “Because voucher programs, like the one in North Carolina, are supported through tax revenues, the public has a stake in knowing whether the money spent represents a sound investment. In addition, because attendance at a private school meets the state’s compulsory education requirement, the state has a stake in being assured that the education offered meets basic standards.”

North Carolina’s lawmakers have spent nearly 1.5 billion taxpayer dollars on private school vouchers since the program’s launch but they still require no oversight of the curriculum taught by the schools that receive state funds.

The lack of academic accountability for private schools contrasts sharply with public schools, which must select curriculum aligned to the North Carolina Standard Course of Study, a rigorously developed and reviewed set of content standards created by education experts. The North Carolina Standard Course of Study is designed to prepare students for postsecondary college and career options.

This new report focuses on the curriculum taught in North Carolina's K-12 private schools that received tuition funds through the voucher program in the 2024-2025 school year. It is modeled on research completed by the North Carolina League of Women Voters of the Lower Cape Fear (NC LWV-LCF) in 2017.

The reports show that just 7% of voucher-receiving private schools use standards that align to North Carolina’s content standards. Seventy-three percent of the private schools that received tuition voucher funds in 2024-25 are religious and use curriculum explicitly founded on a biblical worldview. Some education experts worry that these materials do not have the academic content and rigor required by the North Carolina Standard Course of Study when preparing students for postsecondary options.

The report recommends that the North Carolina General Assembly establish a study commission to examine the curriculum taught at private schools receiving taxpayer voucher funds. The commission should be charged with evaluating whether the biblical worldview curriculum (and other curriculum taught in voucher-receiving private schools) meets the learning standards required for our public high school students aimed at helping them succeed after high school in the 21st century.

Heather Koons
Public Schools First NC
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