Why is North Carolina’s governor so afraid of school choice? Follow the money

When his own government report showed a rising number of failing students, Gov.
Roy Cooper
(D-NC) did not ask the public “to take immediate action” or embrace reforms that create more educational opportunities.

Instead, the
North Carolina
governor continued to resist school choice measures that would provide students in low-performing schools with alternatives. Although he postured as a centrist on education policy during his 2020
reelection campaign
, Cooper, a Democrat, has fallen in line with the demands of his benefactors in the
teachers unions
since resuming office.

A DEBT LIMIT WIN FOR THE GOP

He has blocked
legislation
enabling all North Carolina families to receive scholarships for private school tuition while resisting
new avenues
for expanding charter schools.

Despite saying children returning to school was his “No. 1 priority,” Cooper vetoed a
bill
that would accelerate in-person learning options for students. The legislation provided school boards with latitude to halt attendance if COVID-19 infections began to spike. But at the same time, the bill’s primary authors also accommodated schools that could reopen with little risk to students and teachers.

Cooper’s veto closely coincided with the release of a
report
that Catherine Truitt, the state’s superintendent of public instruction, shared with lawmakers in March 2021. Almost 23% of North Carolina’s public school students were at risk of academic failure during that school year, according to Truitt’s education department.

That sounds like an alarming figure, but it was not until a few days ago that Cooper declared a
state of emergency
, demanding “immediate action” and applying public pressure against the state legislature.

The public school system is “under siege” because Republican lawmakers are pushing bills that would “choke the life out of public education,” Cooper
said
during a May 22 press conference.

The governor is scandalized because Republicans want families to have more autonomy over their tax dollars in the form of scholarships they could apply toward educational costs, including private school tuition. Cooper, who sends his
children
to private schools, claims the legislation would benefit millionaires at taxpayers’ expense.

But the
House
and
Senate
versions of the bills in question would use a sliding-scale system, whereby household income would determine the size of the scholarships. The Carolina Journal
details
how this would work. The scholarship system would prioritize households earning $55,000 a year or less and match the value of each scholarship to income.

The lowest-income households would qualify for 100% of the scholarships estimated to be about $7,400 a year. Higher-income households would receive less.
Estimates
show the wealthiest families receiving about $3,000.

Rather than working with the legislature to reform and liberalize the restrictive eligibility requirements for the
Opportunity Scholarship program
, Cooper prefers to
defund
the program completely. Fortunately, he won’t have that opportunity.

In April, state Rep. Tricia Cotham
announced
she was switching her affiliation from Democratic to Republican, providing the GOP with a veto-proof majority in the House. A former principal and teacher, Cotham was motivated by Republican support for school choice and the public’s growing appetite for reform.

By contrast, Cooper seems motivated by campaign contributions from the North Carolina Association of Educators, an affiliate of the politically potent National Education Association.

With more than
$400 million
in assets, NEA, a longtime opponent of school choice initiatives, has devoted
about 97%
of its political action committee contributions to Democrats in recent years.

Cooper,
endorsed
by the NCAE, received $5,100 during the 2016 first-quarter reporting period from the union, $4,000 during 2016’s third-quarter period, $1,000 during the 2019 mid-year report period, and $5,400 (the maximum contribution permitted in North Carolina) during the second quarter of 2020, according to campaign finance
records
. All told, Cooper has received more than
$22,000
from the NCAE since first running successfully for attorney general in the mid-1990s. He also received more than
$84,000
from government unions during the same time frame.

By rejecting education reform at the behest of union leaders, Cooper is at odds not just with parents and students, but with some members of his own party. Three Senate and eight House Democrats supported the bill to advance in-person learning despite the NCAE’s opposition.

Going forward, Gov. Roy Cooper (D-Teachers Unions) would be an apt description.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Kevin Mooney (
@KevinMooneyDC
) is a senior investigative reporter at the Commonwealth Foundation, Pennsylvania’s free-market think tank, and writes for several national publications.