North Carolina to Nearly Double Remote Charter Academies Next Year
State officials report remote charter academies will jump from 10 to 19 schools, sparking debate over whether growth serves students or finances.
RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA — The number of remote charter academies in North Carolina will nearly double next school year, state education officials announced this week.
Ashley Logue, executive director of the Office of Charter Schools, informed the state’s Charter Schools Review Board on Monday that 19 remote academies are expected to operate during the upcoming school year, up from 10 during the previous year. The total includes four statewide virtual schools.
The expansion follows legislation passed in 2023 that allowed traditional brick-and-mortar schools to establish separate online programs or operate as standalone virtual schools. The first seven remote charter programs opened under the new law in 2024.
Administrative Challenges Mount
Logue told board members the growth is creating significant new administrative burdens for her office staff. “The impact of that is that we now authorize and monitor remote academies on top of the brick and mortar academies,” Logue said during her presentation of the 2025 North Carolina Charter Schools Annual Report.
The Office of Charter Schools is developing a different renewal process specifically for remote academies. Under current state rules, remote charter academies receive fixed five-year contracts and cannot receive the up to 10-year extensions available to traditional charter schools.
Board Members Clash Over Motives
The expansion has sparked debate among board members about whether the growth stems from genuine educational needs or financial incentives tied to student enrollment numbers.
During a March meeting, board member Stephen Gay questioned the motivations behind the rapid proliferation of remote programs. “I see it as a money grab for a lot of schools that are doing it,” Gay said during that debate.
Board Chairman Bruce Friend, whose own school received approval for a remote charter academy earlier this year, pushed back against the characterization. “If it’s a money grab, then we need to weed that out from the get-go,” Friend responded.
The tension reflects broader concerns about whether remote charter academies are being created to serve educational purposes or to increase enrollment and the state funding that follows each student.
Charter schools in North Carolina receive per-pupil funding from the state based on their enrollment numbers, making student recruitment a critical financial factor for these institutions.
