On Tuesday, the House of Representatives voted 72 to 44 to override N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of House Bill 10, which would increase private school voucher funding and require sheriffs to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
HB10 also includes funding for K-12 public schools, Medicaid and expanding high-speed broadband internet.
The Senate is expected to vote on the override tomorrow.
As previously reported by BPR, the latest version of the controversial bill was vetoed by Cooper in late September.
Rep. Destin Hall, who is set to replace Rep. Tim Moore as the House speaker in 2025 following Moore’s election to Congress, is the lead sponsor of the bill.
The 2024 version of HB10 passed by majority votes in the state Senate and House in early September.
The measure's private school voucher provisions could send hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to fund Opportunity Scholarships for non-public school students.
In a news release sent out by Cooper on Nov. 15, he urged Republican legislators to provide much-needed funding for Western North Carolina disaster recovery instead of spending millions of taxpayer dollars on private school vouchers.
“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 in a news release. “...Legislators should invest billions of dollars in Western North Carolina recovery instead of locking in billions for private school vouchers.”
Rep. Julie von Haefen, a Wake County Democrat, spoke against HB10.
“Western North Carolina is recovering from a once-in-a-lifetime storm,” von Haefen said. “There are small business owners struggling to make ends meet and in need of immediate relief in the form of state grants. They are the backbone of our economy, and we have to make sure that they survive.”
She also mentioned that WNC counties including Haywood, Madison, and Yancey will be the most affected.
“Eighty percent of their students go to public school but they have one, two, or maybe four private schools that accept vouchers,” von Haefen explained. “The hardest hit counties in Western North Carolina will be the most affected because their families do not benefit from the millions of dollars being appropriated in this bill.”
Rep. Tricia Cotham spoke in favor of HB10.
“It's about families being able to pick what is best for their child,” Cotham said. “We do not need to set up a false choice between hurricane relief and public school funding and funding for the Opportunity Scholarship Program. The other side seems to want to present an argument that everyone now is going to be forced to go to private school and that is absolutely false.”
While much of the debate was on vouchers, Hall zeroed in on the provision in HB10 that would require all North Carolina sheriffs to cooperate with ICE.
“It's unbelievable to me that any law enforcement officer who truly is trying to do everything that they can to keep their folks safe would not already cooperate with ICE,” Hall explained. “It's unfortunate that we even need this bill and we didn't need it until about six years ago because every sheriff in the state was already doing what it requires.”
The bill would require sheriffs to honor ICE requests to detain – for at least 48 hours – individuals suspected of being in the country illegally.
Reacting to the vote from the House to override the veto on Tuesday, Compañeros Inmigrantes de las Montañas en Acción (CIMA), a non-profit organization in Asheville that supports immigrants’ rights in WNC, said HB10 could create family separation and it is a slap to the face of all North Carolina children, regardless of race.
“Public schools need more financial support from the government. It is always said that children are the future of our country, but there is no investment in improving their programs. HB10 goes against good public education, HB10 will create unsafe and unequal communities, good education will only benefit some children. HB10 is a barrier to all working-class people, immigrant or not.”
