So naturally, the news gets buried. “A generation ago, only a relative handful of students, disproportionately affluent and urban, went to schools that weren’t run by districts,” John Hood points out in the Carolina Journal. “Today, about 20 percent of young North Carolinians attend chartered public schools, private schools or home schools.”
“In some counties, the ratio is closer to 30 percent. In virtually all counties, the ratio is rising.” Hood is the chairman of the John Locke Foundation, which is based in North Carolina.
“New charter schools are opening all across the state. Some school districts are launching or relaunching their own schools of choice, as magnets or as options for open-enrollment programs,” he writes. “And thousands of North Carolina children are entering private or home schools for the first time this year, many receiving state scholarships or other public assistance.”