“Our state and country benefit from the debate between those with differing viewpoints in this quintessentially political dialogue”.

Writing for a 4-3 majority, Chief Justice Mark Martin said otherwise, overruling a lower court that had struck down the program. The scholarships are only available to low-income families, with the threshold pegged to 133 percent of the income required to qualify for free and reduced-price school lunches. The scholarships have been touted as an opportunity for students of color to escape academically deficient campuses. Most recently, Colorado’s Supreme Court struck down a district program that operated in a similar fashion to North Carolina. Second, to begin receiving vouchers, students must be entering kindergarten or must have attended a public school the previous semester. Hobgood, in that ruling wrote, “Appropriating taxpayer funds to unaccountable schools does not accomplish a public objective”. “Accordingly, the trial court erred in declaring the Opportunity Scholarship Program unconstitutional”.

“Today is a very sad day in the history of our state”, said Yevonne Brannon, chair of Public Schools First NC.

Rodney Ellis, with the N.C. Association of Educators. said in a statement, “This decision will continue the damage being done to our public schools and students by allowing private vouchers to drain money from our already underfunded schools. Today’s decision by the Supreme Court is a victory for every parent whose child is being underserved in North Carolina”, Gov. Pat McCrory said.

“This is a major paradigm shift for the State of North Carolina for how we’re looking at K-12 education in our state”, Darrell Allison, president of Parents for Education Freedom, said in response to last week’s ruling.

This is where the concept of “opportunity scholarships” falls on its face. Over 40 of those students came from Eastern North Carolina.

Proponents of vouchers say they give struggling students and students in failing schools a chance to move to a private school that meets their needs.

“The dissent concludes, “[T]his program… provides no framework at all for evaluating any of the participating schools’ contribution to public purposes; such a huge omission is a constitutional black hole into which the entire program should disappear”. “We applaud them for recognizing that education is ultimately a personal right belonging to our citizens, not a governmental agency or system”.

Under the law upheld Thursday, North Carolina has some guidelines in place to implement the state’s voucher program in a measured way.

The highest court in the state ended a legal battle that first started in February of 2014.

In 2014, more than 5,500 families applied for almost 2,400 scholarships.

Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, said Thursday’s decision was about the state’s children and their future. Now that the Supreme Court has ruled the Opportunity Scholarship Program constitutional in our state, it is imperative that our supporters and critics alike understand that the Program is not and will never be the sole silver bullet to solve all of the challenges faced by many families in our education system. State legislators have allocated $17.6 million for the program in the coming year, and it will offer more aid than in 2014.