North Carolina Republicans are ready for Trump’s school choice initiative

North Carolina is on the brink of becoming the first state to opt in to President Donald Trump’s signature school choice initiative.  

Both the Republican-led House and Senate approved the “Educational Choice for Children Act” last month. Democratic Gov. Josh Stein had the chance to stand up for parental freedom and school choice. Instead, he chose to join the ranks of other Democratic governors who sold out parents and students in favor of entrenched education bureaucrats.

I look forward to leading the North Carolina Senate in overriding the governor’s veto to provide families with another avenue to choose the education that best meets their child’s needs.

We in North Carolina have been working toward universal school choice for more than a decade. In 2023, when the legislature overrode then-Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto and made taxpayer-funded school choice scholarships available to every family in the state, a key parental choice battle was won.  

Now, we’re poised to expand on that win even further because of President Trump’s leadership. 

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 — a defining domestic policy achievement for President Trump’s second term — allows states to opt in to a new federal tax credit of up to $1,700 for contributions to organizations offering scholarships to students who wish to attend a private school. This is a monumental shift enabling philanthropic giving aimed at student-centered investments in education. That means parents will have even more resources at their disposal to send their children to the school that’s right for them. 

This major federal move toward educational freedom, ushered in by President Trump and delivered over the finish line by Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), is a landmark moment in American education policy. When the idea of publicly funded education gained traction in the 19th century, it represented a shift from an exclusive luxury available only to the economically (and racially) privileged, to universally accessible public education. 

Free schools, funded by taxpayers, meant the children of sharecroppers and day laborers had the opportunity to escape their economic class and enjoy a life their parents couldn’t.  

We no longer live in the 19th century. Today, class difference doesn’t segregate who can go to school and who can’t, but it does segregate who can go to the school that’s best for them and who is stuck in a school that doesn’t suit their God-given gifts. 

Today, parents have a multitude of schooling options for their kids. They ought to have the economic freedom and ability to choose among them. 

It does not make sense to impose a 19th-century framework on the 21th-century education landscape. It is outdated to assign students to single schools and force parents to fork over more money (in addition to what they already pay in taxes) if they want, and their child needs, something different. 

In other words, we should no longer fund systems and bureaucracies. We can, and should, fund students.  

That is why we fought for more than a decade in North Carolina to create a taxpayer-funded scholarship program available to all families who do not believe their assigned district school is the right place for their children. Now, North Carolina families aren’t required to double-pay for their child’s K-12 education — first in taxes, then for tuition. They can receive an Opportunity Scholarship, funded with their tax dollars, and use it to attend a private school. 

And in the near future, if the legislature successfully overrides Stein’s veto and opts in to the “One Big Beautiful Bill’s” school choice tax credit, North Carolina parents will have yet more opportunity to choose a school that helps their children realize their full potential. 

North Carolina House Speaker Destin Hall (R) and I have made this a priority for the General Assembly. We both agree: President Trump’s leadership presents an opportunity to improve the educational options available to North Carolina families, and it’s incumbent on us to follow through on it. 

Phil Berger (R) is the leader of the North Carolina Senate. He is the longest-tenured state legislative leader currently serving in America.