Chapter 33: North Carolina

North Carolina educated approximately 1.4 million pupils in traditional public schools at about 10,600 dollars per pupil in the 2021-2022 academic year. This represents a 6% decrease in real-dollar, inflation-adjusted per pupil investment since 2018 and ranks the state at 39 in per pupil expenditures in the country.² In addition, another 131,000 students attend NC charter schools.³ Demographically, the NC student population is approximately 52% White, 22% African American, 16% Hispanic, with 43% of children under 18 living in homes that are 200% above the poverty threshold.⁴ Independent of charter schools (which will be discussed below) the state oversees 115 fiscally dependent school districts, of which 100 are county-wide and 15 are city-based.