Education (School Choice)

SB 439 imposes a moratorium on new Opportunity Scholarships starting in the 2025-2026 school year, requiring new applicants to have received a scholarship in the prior year. It reduces funding for the program by $83.46 million annually (recurring) and $28.46 million (nonrecurring) for 2025-2026, while redirecting $113.46 million (recurring) and $28.46 million (nonrecurring) to public schools for the same year. The bill phases out the scholarship program entirely by 2037-2038 as current recipients become ineligible, and limits future scholarship funding increases to match public school funding growth. This directly affects new private school scholarship applicants and redirects funds from the Opportunity Scholarship program to North Carolina public schools.