Embedded Files
June 2025
The Spark
The Spark
North Carolina has followed the way of other states to provide vouchers to private and parochial schools. These funds are removed from traditional public schools who serve all to give to those who serve the few. I wondered what the data would show.
The Process
The Process
Wrangle the Data
Wrangle the Data
I went to NCES for a file of all PSS data for the 2021-2022 school year and downloaded the NC data by school, grade, race/ethnicity, and county. The basic structure is County-Year as a combo key - if you like knowing this stuff. Here's the data.
Develop a Key
Develop a Key
Oh my, the data cleaning. I learned that these names aren't consistent at the state level from year to year.
Also, what do you do if the school is listed in NC but not in NCES? So many data decisions. See the Key sheet to understand the scale of the data problem
Mapping the Data
Mapping the Data
Maps are powerful but they can be tricky in Data Studio. I cleaned the county names and wrangled the data so values could be presented geographically.
The Visual
The Visual
I mapped the data by Opportunity Scholarship per Enrolled Student in each county. North Carolina has decreased funding to public schools by over $200,000,000 and shifted these funds to private schools with little to no oversight.
I graphed recipients by year to show the impact over time. It's more than doubled in a single year.
And finally, I wanted to know: "Opportunities for whom?" Totals by race and ethnicity are charted as well. Opportunity Scholarships caused an increase in the percentage and number of white students choosing private schools.
The Takeaway
The Takeaway
$200,000,000 dollars have been removed from public funds to support the religious and exclusionary education of students in private school settings at the cost of students in traditional public schools. These funds are essentially unrestricted and unmonitored.
Next Steps
Next Steps
If I were to build this out, I would finish the manual data cleaning. It was a bear and had diminishing opportunity cost for a quick dive. I would figure out the race and ethnicity data by county and have a county selector so you know how your child in a traditional public school may be affected by this policy.
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