an image shows the word "public" becoming the word "private" in front of the word "school"

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The North Carolina House of Representatives on Tuesday afternoon overrode Governor Roy Cooper’s veto of House Bill 10 — a bill that would boost funding for the state’s private school voucher program by more than $2 billion over the next decade. The vote was 72-44.

The bill, which came to be referred to as a “mini-budget” when it was passed by the General Assembly and vetoed by Cooper in September, would also require sheriffs to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials at a time when President-elect Donald Trump is pledging to enact the “largest mass deportation” in American history.

“Helene was the most devastating storm our state has ever seen and there is a long and expensive road of recovery ahead for Western North Carolina,” Cooper said Friday ahead of the vote. “Legislators should invest billions of dollars in Western North Carolina recovery instead of locking in billions for private school vouchers.”

But Republican leaders did not heed that request, proposing just $227 million in Helene funding in the latest relief bill while allocating nearly ten times that sum to the state’s Opportunity Scholarship school voucher program over the next decade. The proposal would immediately appropriate $463 million to that program to expand it to all income levels.

The program, which uses tax dollars to fund K-12 students’ tuition at private schools around the state, was set to receive roughly $3.7 billion from 2024 to 2033. Under HB 10, it will instead receive more than $5.8 billion after using up its annual funding early in the previous fiscal year. Appropriations for the program would ramp up by tens of millions of dollars each year before settling at $825 million per year in the 2032-33 fiscal year, where it would remain in all subsequent fiscal years.

Rep. Julie von Haefen (D-Wake) condemned Republicans for prioritizing school vouchers over aid to western North Carolina in her remarks on the floor.

“People in western North Carolina are just now getting water to drink,” von Haefan said. “We have the money to help them survive, but instead, we’re giving it away to the wealthiest families in our state.”

Rep. Tricia Cotham (R-Mecklenburg) said Democrats were setting up a “false choice” between funding for school vouchers and hurricane relief. She also denied that the voucher program predominantly benefits wealthy families.

“This is about putting children first. It is unfortunate that we have seen for the past two years with this legislation the political posturing from the executive level all the way to here,” Cotham said. “When you talk about wealthy and billionaires, you are wrong.”

Not all backers of the bill were Republicans. Rep. Carla Cunningham (D-Mecklenburg) voted for the override, citing funding for ICE and healthcare and a desire not to “throw the baby out with the bathwater.”

The ICE component of the bill requires sheriffs to determine the immigration status of those held in jail and comply with any ICE warrants, protecting law enforcement officers from criminal or civil liability for doing so.

Rep. Abe Jones (D-Wake) objected to using sheriffs to enforce immigration law, arguing that state and local law enforcement is already under-resourced.

“ICE is federal law. And the federal government gets plenty of our tax money to hire whoever they need to enforce those laws,” Jones said. “I say, tell ICE to do ICE’s work. Need more money? Go over there and get it from the federal government.”

The bill’s passage in the House comes just months before North Carolina Republicans are set to lose their supermajority in that chamber, according to unofficial State Board of Election results, which will significantly raise the difficulty of passing legislation opposed by the governor. So far in the “lame duck” session, Republicans have focused on veto overrides and reducing the power of newly elected Democrats in the executive branch.

The Senate, which adjourned for the day early Tuesday afternoon, is expected to vote on the veto override when it reconvenes Wednesday.

NC House overrides veto, votes to boost school voucher program by $2B over next decade