Why I Considered Charter and Private School Options for my Daughters

During my time as an educator, I worked in a Catholic private school, a charter school, and multiple public school systems. I feel, due to my varied experience, I have a pretty robust view of what options for children in our county are for education. As someone who was enrolled in Catholic school herself from Pre-K 3 through 12th grade, I knew that when I had my own children it wasn’t what I wanted for them. However, I was happy that it was an option for me growing up because I credit my high school (St. Joseph Hill Academy in Staten Island) for preparing me for success in college, graduate school, and beyond. I believe in school choice for families but with the caveat that any school, whether public, private, or charter should all be held to the same accountability standards.

In North Carolina two charter schools have recently been forced to close by the North Carolina Charter School review board due to multiple noncompliance issues. I worked as a school counselor in a charter school for 2.5 years and was able to see what a charter school can accomplish when they follow compliance and go above and beyond to meet the mission they set out when creating their charter. If our family still lived in Oxford, I would have sent my girls to the charter I worked for. However, there are many charter schools that do not follow the same path. When charter schools are forced to close mid-year this leaves students without a school and families scrambling to find a place for their student to receive an education. The money from public education that was allocated to a closed charter school for these students also does not follow those students if they re-enroll in a public school. This leaves public schools with an increasing student population and not enough funding per pupil when there is already a public school funding crisis.

The Opportunity Scholarship Program is North Carolina’s private school voucher program. The original intent of the program was to provide money for students in low-income households to attend private schools because their needs cannot be met in a traditional public school. However, in recent years the program has expanded and is based on a tiered income system. Families receive scholarship money based on what tier their household income falls into. The highest tier, tier 4, is made up of families with annual incomes above $259,750 for a family of 4. According to data from Public School Forum of North Carolina , in the 2024-2025 school year there were 2,807 Opportunity Scholarship recipients in Union County and 18% of them were in Tier 4 which is higher than the state average of 14%. This means that these scholarships are being handed out to families who can afford to send their children to private schools, but don't want to pay for it. In addition to being unethical, it also takes away a scholarship from a deserving student. Private schools receiving Opportunity Scholarship funding are not required to meet the same academic standards or accountability practices that public schools are but they are receiving funding from the public school system. Our state has created a system that is draining money from public education to support private institutions and wealthy families without any accountability.

As a parent, I know how important it is to look at all options to decide what you feel will be right for your child. Both of my children have had unique circumstances when it comes to education. Charlotte, who is now 8 and in 3rd grade, was born in September missing the cutoff for Kindergarten by a week. Charlotte is identified as twice exceptional, meaning she is academically gifted but also has a diagnosed disability. She was leaps and bounds ahead of where she should be academically in her last year of Pre-K so we made the decision to send her to a private school in Union County for Kindergarten due to them having a November cutoff. The plan was for her to move to public school for first grade, however, due to a dispute I will cover in later discussions, we pulled her younger sister Kinsley from the EC Pre-K program in UCPS and put them both in private school the following year.

While Kinsley was successful in the private school Pre-K program, the school made a comment to me that they felt it “wasn’t the place for her long-term” due to her health and academic needs (a common occurrence for children with disabilities enrolled in private schools). At the same time, Charlotte was sleeping through 1st grade due to being bored and still making almost perfect grades because the curriculum at the school was not nearly on par with what public school curriculum looks like. In the winter of 2024, my husband and I knew we had to make a decision on what to do for the following year. We couldn’t afford another year of private school but I had lost trust in UCPS after what had occurred while Kinsley was in treatment for cancer. We applied for an Opportunity Scholarship for Charlotte and an ESA+ grant for Kinsley and started looking at other private school options for them. I truly never pictured my children attending private school. Our plan when we moved to Union County was for them to both be in public school and we moved to the house we currently live in due to wanting to be zoned for Waxhaw and Parkwood.

Even though we applied for the voucher program I knew ultimately it wasn’t what I wanted for my girls so I spent months going back and forth with UCPS to ensure that if we transferred them back to public school, both of my girls would have the support they needed in place. After eventually having to hire a lawyer due to UCPS central office’s refusal to meet Kinsley’s medical needs, we eventually had an IEP in place that met Kinsley’s needs and both girls started at Waxhaw Elementary in September 2024. Over the last year the staff at WXES has gone above and beyond for both of my girls. Charlotte is absolutely thriving academically and has blossomed socially, even being chosen to be part of House Hype Crew and Mayor of her 3rd grade class. Kinsley has made progress as well and has supports in place that help her to be successful even as her health has declined in the last 6 months. Attending public school has given them both opportunities they would not have had at their previous private school and I could not be more thankful for the staff at WXES for helping them both grow and thrive.

If our state is going to continue draining money from public education to send to charter and private schools, these schools need to be held to the same standards as public schools. Public School Forum of North Carolina released a document with 6 recommendations for accountability for the NC Voucher program that I believe would be an excellent starting point for this. Having options for education is great, but when those options continue to fail our kids something needs to be done.