Republican leaders have said for weeks that they plan to override Gov. Josh Stein’s veto of school choice legislation, but whether they will try to do so this week remains unclear.
As about 1.5 million North Carolina public school students return to classes this week, the General Assembly is scheduled to reconvene at noon today for the first time since July 31. Listed among a handful of items that may be considered are veto overrides. The Republican-led General Assembly overturned eight of 14 bills Stein vetoed before adjourning last month.
N.C. GOP chairman Jason Simmons predicted that N.C. would become the first state to participate in federal tax credits for donations to private schools available under the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
House Bill 87, the Educational Choice for Children Act, ratified in July, was designed to opt the state into the program. But Stein vetoed the legislation on Aug. 6.
“Congress and the Administration should strengthen our public schools, not hollow them out,” the governor said in a statement. “Cutting public education funding by billions of dollars while providing billions in tax giveaways to wealthy parents already sending their kids to private schools is the wrong choice.”
Senate Leader Phil Berger said he looked forward to overriding the veto. Berger, a Rockingham County Republican, said the governor was attempting to usurp the General Assembly’s authority to set tax policy.
The legislation and subsequent veto have sparked debate among public school supporters and school choice advocates already at odds over the state Legislature’s 2024 decision to expand Opportunity Scholarships that provide vouchers for private schools.
Joshua Breazeale, executive director for Parents for Public Schools of Pitt County, said HB 87 appeared to try to bypass the governor’s authority and force the state to participate.
“The way that it was written in, the bill provided the opportunity for governors to choose to opt in,” Breazeale said in an interview. “The General Assembly of N.C. is basically saying, ‘We don’t want the governor of N.C. to be able to make that decision. We (legislators) want to make that decision.’”
Pointing to Stein’s statement about needing more guidance on the federal scholarship donation tax credit program, Breazeale said Parents for Public Schools supports the governor’s position.
“This is just another form of the Opportunity Scholarship,” he said. “We continue to urge lawmakers at all levels to invest more in public schools instead of using tax dollars that go ultimately as private school vouchers.”
Mike Long, president of Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina, disagreed. He said the tax incentive program does not cut funds from public education.
“Instead, it empowers private citizens to contribute toward scholarships that ultimately open doors for children,” Long said in a statement. “What his veto does do is protect the status quo, deflects from real solutions, delays greater opportunity for students, and signals to every parent that their child’s educational opportunity depends on their zip code, their parents’ income, and political games.”
Under the new federal law, individual taxpayers can claim a 100% tax credit for up to $1,700 in donations they make to scholarship-granting organizations that award scholarships to children. Unlike a tax deduction for charitable gifts, the available tax credit is dollar-for-dollar.
To qualify for a scholarship, students must come from households earning no more than 300% of their county’s median income. Eligible expenses include tuition, fees, tutoring, special needs services, books, supplies, computers, room and board, and transportation. The program starts in 2027.
Long said that the governor’s veto ignores the fact that it will take time and resources to prepare for the program’s rollout.
Breazeale said the legislation will further benefit families who have received funds from Opportunity Scholarships. Changes made in that statewide program last year removed income limits for families and made students who had previously attended private schools eligible for funding.
Following the expansion, the number of Opportunity Scholarship recipients across the state went from about 32,000 in the 2023-24 school year to more than 80,000 last school year. During the same time period, spending for the scholarships increased from about $185 million to more than $430 million statewide.
In Pitt County, Opportunity Scholarship funding rose from about $2.7 million in 2023-24 to more than $9.5 million in 2024-25.
Breazeale said as many as 90% of voucher recipients in N.C. already attended private schools before receiving an Opportunity Scholarship and that more than half of recipients’ families make more than $115,000 a year. He also said the scholarship funding primarily benefits students in urban counties. Some rural counties, which have few, if any, private schools, received little to no Opportunity Scholarship funding last year.
“The private school voucher program, in addition to this new one, would continue to take public tax dollars and send them to wealthy families primarily in places like Raleigh and Charlotte, which leaves less money in the pot for the rest of the state that has fewer and fewer resources,” Breazeale said. “It really becomes a sticking point for rural counties that just rely so much on those federal dollars. That’s where it hits harder.
“For the states that already have something like N.C., it’s an additional way for people to be able to fund going to a private school,” he said. “Your average person that’s looking for school choice, that’s not going to make it any more accessible for them.”
Stein has said he is awaiting federal guidance on how the scholarship donation tax credit program might benefit public school students. He said if funds could be used for public school needs such as tutoring or after-school programs, then he would choose to have the state participate.
Kim Grizzard, Staff Writer – Aug. 2025