RALEIGH — School choice in North Carolina continued to thrive in 2025 through the Opportunity Scholarship program, homeschooling and support from the Trump administration.
The 15th annual National School Choice Week kicked things off, taking place from Jan. 26 to Feb. 1 with more than 27,600 events nationwide across 37 states. Twenty such events took place in North Carolina. Also in January, President Donald Trump issued an executive order on “Expanding Educational Freedom and Opportunities for Families.”
Public school enrollment levels declined this year by around 24,100 students (1.8%) in 105 of the state’s 115 public school districts, according to data maintained by the NC Department of Public Instruction. That opposite enrollment trend occurred for school choice options.
The number of homeschools and homeschooled students in the state rose again this year. The number of homeschools for 2024-25 rose 5.54% over 2023-24, while the number of students grew 4.82% from 2023-24 to 2024-25. Homeschooling data for 2024-25 shows there were 101,880 homeschools and 165,243 students in North Carolina. For the previous year, there were 96,529 homeschools and 157,642 students.
At the start of the school year, there were 211 charters, but the number dropped slightly after the closure of two schools at the start of the year. This was the first dip in number of schools since the cap on the number of charter schools was lifted in 2011 by the General Assembly.
Charter school enrollment did not follow the same pattern, instead increasing by 8,845 to 153,480 students, a 6.1% bump over 2023-24. Demand for charters also persisted, with 77% of public charter schools citing a waitlist. Statewide, the waitlist total was around 74,287, though some may be duplicates with students applying to multiple schools.
A new report by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools showed North Carolina’s charter enrollment was the fourth fastest growing in the nation between the 2019-20 and the 2024-25 school years. During that period, the state’s enrollment rose by 26.4%.
State data shows the number of private schools and students attending them also increased this year. In 2023-24, there were 131,230 private school students, and in 2024-25, the number increased by 3.44% to 135,738. For schools, there were 881 in 2023-24, which went up by 49 to 930, or 5.56%, in 2024-25.
The increase in private school attendance can be linked to the state’s Opportunity Scholarship program (OSP) enrollment, which surpassed 114,000 students this year. The OSP gives grants to all student applicants in the state to attend the private school of their choice and are awarded based on a sliding household income scale, with lower-income families receiving priority.
Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina (PEFNC), which has constantly backed the OSP, celebrated its 20th anniversary in June. U.S. Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon headlined the gala. PEFNC also rolled out “EduBuilder,” billed as a “first-of-its-kind initiative” to help entrepreneurs expand school access and seat capacity into rural areas.
The U.S. Department of Education issued $53 million to the North Carolina Association for Public Charter Schools out of $500 million in charter school program grants announced by the agency in early October. The money will be put toward the group’s NC Growing Results-Oriented Wins with Charter Schools Program over the next five years to support charter school expansion with a focus on career and technical education, STEM and AI charter models.
In July, Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill was signed into law on Independence Day, which included a nationwide school choice program through a federal tax credit for individuals contributing up to $1,700 annually to scholarship granting organizations. The North Carolina General Assembly ran a bill to immediately take advantage of the program, but it was vetoed by Gov. Josh Stein.
