North Carolina Senate passes controversial bill on school vouchers, immigration
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- The North Carolina Senate passed a newly revised bill that provides more funding for school vouchers and mandates local sheriffs honor ICE detention requests in some situations.
The bill passed by a 27-17 vote Monday.
House Bill 10 covers several topics. The voucher measure will allow more families to take advantage of the voucher program. That's something critics say will harm public schools.
The passed version of HB10 calls for $248 million in nonrecurring funds for Opportunity Scholarships for all students attending private schools. Then, an additional $215 million in recurring funds.
The final amount of scholarships each family receives depends on their income.
"What I cannot understand is how we as a body would sanction taxpayer-funded spending on private schools that have almost no standards to ensure that children receive the education that we know they deserve," Sen. Graig Meyer (D-District 23) said.
In addition to private schools not having standards they must meet to receive taxpayer money, critics also said the money will take away resources from public schools. Senate President Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, pushed back on that critique.
"The funding that we have provided (to public schools) has increased on an annual basis, and in fact in this bill, we funded almost $100 million for the enrollment increases in traditional public schools. The money on a per-pupil basis that goes to kids in public schools goes up every year," he said.
A Gallup Poll found that just 36% of respondents in 2023 were totally satisfied with the quality of K-12 education in the United States.
"This is going to make a huge impact for parents and more importantly North Carolina students, allowing the 72,000 parents to make a decision that's best for their child whether that be private schools, charter schools, or public schools," Director of Government Affairs and General Counsel for the John Locke Foundation Jessica Thompson said. The John Locke Foundation is a right-leaning public policy think tank.
Accessibility is another criticism leveled at the school voucher program in North Carolina.
"There are a number of counties in the state that don't have private schools, where parents don't have the opportunity to move individual families to those communities that have those private schools," Advance Carolina Executive Director Marcus Bass said. Advance Carolina is a community organization dedicated to building political and economic power in Black communities.
Immigration in HB10
House Bill 10 would require sheriffs to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) if they arrest someone and determine that person is living in the country unlawfully.
This topic was a key campaign issue across the state in 2018, but soon the decision may no longer reside in the hands of sheriffs.
On Friday, Republican leaders announced an agreement on the bill. This comes after a House committee voted against the Senate version of HB10 back in May.
"It is amazing that we have to have a bill like this," NCGOP spokesperson Matt Mercer told ABC11 in May. "It seems to be common sense that law enforcement should cooperate with one another."
In a statement, Durham County Sheriff Clearance Birkhead condemned the bill, saying in part:
"House Bill 10 is not only an attack on the immigrant community...but also on the ability for sheriffs, like me, to determine how best to serve the communities and keep them safe."
Wake County Sheriff Willie Rowe is also publicly against HB10.
In a statement obtained by ABC11, Sheriff Rowe said, "This bill hinders the Sheriff's Office's ability to build relationships with the community and takes away authority from the Sheriff to set local law enforcement priorities. The bill will prohibit jails from releasing individuals on bail- even if they are eligible for release under North Carolina law- based on a "request, approval, or other instruction" from the federal government. I want to make our communities safer, but HB 10 will make us less safe by fomenting distrust in local law enforcement. No one should fear interacting with the Wake County Sheriff's Office because of their federal immigration status."
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Sen. Danny Britt (R-District 24) laid out the case for the bill before the vote Monday.
"This bill does not round folks up who are not charged with crimes. It does not send law enforcement into homes of folks who are not charged with crimes. What this does it says if an individual is locked up for certain enumerated violent crimes, violent felonies and violent misdemeanors, that individual must be held by their sheriff for at least 48 hours prior to being released," he said.
As the law stands now, sheriffs have the discretion on whether to honor ICE requests.
"(HB10) just rips at the fabric of what the Sheriff's Office and the constitutional office of the Sheriff represent, and that's being here for the people, having the authority to make decisions on how to police their communities and make them safe," Birkhead said. "This bill is far-reaching as far as I'm concerned. It does harm the immigrant community and the great relationships that we've established here in Durham County. It invokes fear, mistrust."
A report from the Brennan Center for Justice found that undocumented immigration does not increase violent crime. Still, high-profile cases, including the deaths of Laken Riley and Jocelyn Nungaray, involving suspects who were living in the United States illegally have brought renewed attention to the issue.
The bill now moves toward the House for a vote.
