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Former educator warns state scholarship funding has drained local public-school resources
Summary
At the May 6 meeting a longtime educator, Jay Randall, criticized recent North Carolina General Assembly scholarship funding to private schools and recited local figures he said reflect funds diverted from Carteret County Public Schools.
Jay Randall, a resident and former North Carolina public school educator, used his public-comment time at the May 6 Carteret County Board of Education meeting to criticize recent state funding for private-school scholarships and to cite local dollar figures he said reduced funds available to the district.
"The General Assembly's funding for private schools ... they found almost $500,000,000 to fund the opportunity scholarships," Randall said during public comment. "How does this affect Carter County? In Carter County, the state has spent has sent 6 private schools in this county, $2,211,847 that would have come to Carteret County Schools. You could have hired 44 positions with that."
Randall described his background in public education — "I was a proud North Carolina public school educator for 35 years" — and framed the scholarship expansion as a state-level policy decision that he said removed money that otherwise could support public-school positions and programs. He called the General Assembly's funding choices an "attack on public education" and urged the community to take note.
The transcript records Randall's claims about the statewide scholarship program (referred to in his remarks as "opportunity scholarships") and the county-level totals he cited. The board did not record a formal response, staff estimate, or a verification of the stated $2,211,847 figure during the May 6 meeting.
Why this matters: state allocations and scholarship programs can change the distribution of public education funding; local officials and residents often debate whether such programs reduce resources available to public schools or expand parental choice. Randall's remarks raise a local example that the board may choose to examine or request staff analysis on at a later date.
