Today, WFAE published an article highlighting how under the disastrous Republican voucher program, North Carolina taxpayers have sent almost $483,000 to a private school that is impossible to locate and might not exist at all in the Charlotte area.

Six months after investigating the Teaching Students Achieving Academy that receives scholarship money under the voucher program and failing to locate the physical school, a WFAE reporter attempted again to find the institution and learn more about the education being offered at the school. Two registered addresses with the school were visited with no success and several phone calls to school officials were shut down or ended without answers.

While the General Assembly continues to chronically underfund North Carolina’s public schools, Teaching Achieving Students Academy has received $42,000 in money under the voucher program during the current school year, bringing the total over the last 10 years to almost $483,000.

“This report proves just how unaccountable the Republican private school voucher program is – North Carolina taxpayers have sent a phantom private school over $480,000 while our public schools struggle to stay afloat,” said Tommy Mattocks, North Carolina Democratic Party Communications Director. “Republicans are siphoning away money from public schools to funnel billions into their dangerous private school voucher program as part of their scheme to dismantle public education in North Carolina.”

The General Assembly’s most recent budget will expand this disastrous voucher program by $250 million over the next two years to a total of $4 billion over the next ten years. Some school districts will lose up to 8% of their revenue to private schools and several rural schools may be forced to combine with other schools or to close due to lack of funding.

Read the full investigation here.

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