North Carolina's private school voucher program is being challenged in court by seven parents with the support of the N.C. Association of Educators (NCAE) and the National Education Association (NEA).

The parents filed a lawsuit in Wake County Superior Court on Monday charging that North Carolina's controversial Opportunity Scholarship program operates with little state oversight and that some schools benefiting from the program discriminate on the basis of religion and sexual orientation.

The plaintiffs include parents from Durham, Cumberland, Randolph and Wake counties.

NCAE president Tamika Walker Kelly, a Fayetteville music teacher with a child in the public school system and former NCAE vice president Kristy Moore, a Durham educator with a child attending Durham Public Schools, are among the plaintiffs.

"Vouchers for private schools are an affront to a state that has a long and cherished history of public education," Walker Kelly said in a statement. "Using public money to pay for private schools is part of a broad assault on public schools and on our state constitution."

To read more, head to NC Policy Watch.