Parents, educators and school leaders rally to keep Opportunity Scholarship program
Published 12:00 am Thursday, November 20, 2014
More than 100 parents, educators and school leaders, including some from Rowan County, will rally Thursday at the Embassy Suites Charlotte-Concord to highlight the early successes of the Opportunity Scholarship Program.
The Opportunity Scholarship Program, passed in July 2013, creates scholarships of up to $4,200 for low-income and working-class families to attend a private school.
The Opportunity Scholarship Program survived legal challenges in August that threatened to shut it down and disrupt the education of thousands of children who were already enrolled in schools of choice. The courts have allowed the program to continue for the remainder of school year while the case is in the state Supreme Court pending a final decision.
More than 25 percent of all Opportunity Scholarship students participating across the state are represented by families from the six counties who will be at Thursday’s event.
“Within months of the start of the program, we’re already hearing from schools and parents about the positive results students are achieving,” said Darrell Allison, president of Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina, the state’s leading parental choice organization and event sponsor.
“We must be able to continue that momentum to ensure all children in North Carolina have an opportunity to reach their full academic potential,” he said.
The event will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Kannapolis Room at the Embassy Suites Charlotte-Concord, 5400 John Q. Hammons Dr. NW in Concord.