Despite Past Opposition, Governor Roy Cooper Proclaims “School Choice Week” in North Carolina

Despite his historic opposition to school choice, Governor Roy Cooper recently issued a proclamation naming the week of January 24-29, 2022 as “School Choice Week.” Source: News & Observer

Despite his historic opposition to school choice, Governor Roy Cooper recently issued a proclamation naming the week of January 24-29, 2022 as “School Choice Week,” in which he affirms the overall importance of education to children before shifting to praise of “educational variety” and school choice in general. This proclamation comes as a part of a national program run by a public awareness effort organization, School Choice Week, and was promoted to Gov. Cooper by the North Carolina Association for Public Charter Schools.

Although conservatives generally support school choice initiatives, such as Opportunity Scholarships, which provide scholarships to low-income families who wish to send their children to private schools, liberal leaders, such as Cooper, tend to favor public school funding programs over those that emphasize school choice. Democrats claim that school choice programs such as Opportunity Scholarships take needed state funds from already underfunded public schools and funnel them into private schools that are unaccountable to the public. Additionally, since charter and private schools tend to be inaccessible to low-income families or single-parent households, which tend to be people of color, Democrats say that school choice also inadvertently leads to resegregation.

Pro-school choice groups such as the North Carolina Coalition for Charter Schools responded with approval, writing a letter to the governor to thank him for his “public declaration of support for school choice.” Republican state officials such as the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Catherine Truitt, also signaled their approval on social media. North Carolina’s largest organization of public school teachers, the North Carolina Association of Educators, declined to comment on the proclamation. The NCAE has historically opposed school choice and Opportunity Scholarships and endorsed Cooper in his first election primarily due to his support for public schools.

A Republican state senator, Deanna Ballard, directly asked Cooper why he had proclaimed School Choice Week if he did not plan to take further steps to promote school choice in the state, writing, “If you remain opposed to school choice policies like Opportunity Scholarships, why did you issue a proclamation supportive of the school choice movement?” Geof Coltrane, Cooper’s Senior Education Advisor, wrote a letter in response promoting the choices families could make within the public school system, such as magnet and early college high schools, and criticizing Opportunity Scholarships as an “unaccountable voucher program.” He also pointed out that Cooper had proposed increased investments into notoriously underfunded North Carolina public schools but the Republican-controlled state legislature blocked that initiative.

However, despite this proclamation, and to the dismay of school choice supporters, Cooper has not taken any further policy action to confirm a sudden switch in position to supporting school choice, nor has Cooper himself spoken about his rationale for issuing a proclamation designed to increase the visibility of school choice. Notably, the proclamation is even absent from the Governor’s official proclamation website. In the absence of an official explanation, one conservative think tank, the John Locke Foundation, has gone as far as to wonder if the proclamation had simply been an administrative error. However, based on Cooper’s past statements, it is unlikely he is drastically shifting his position on school choice. Proponents and opponents of school choice alike will simply have to see if the Governor continues to declare “School Choice Week” in the coming years ahead.