Attorney General Josh Stein released a statement last week after submitting a brief on behalf of North Carolina arguing that the state’s supreme court should not overturn its November 2022 decision in the education funding case commonly known as ‘Leandro.’

“North Carolina’s children have a constitutional right to a sound, basic public education,” Stein said. “Our General Assembly is failing them. This is the legislature’s latest attempt to shirk its responsibility to our students and avoid having to properly fund our state’s educational needs.

“The court correctly ruled in 2022 that the state must implement a court-approved comprehensive plan to give all children the education our constitution promises. Now, Republican legislators are asking the court to undo that decision — but the facts haven’t changed.

“Our success as a state depends on how well we support and educate our children. I hope the court reaffirms its prior ruling and puts our state on a path to adequately fund our classrooms and give our students the best chance of success.”

Background (Public School Forum of North Carolina) 

In 1994, five school districts in low-wealth counties along with families filed a lawsuit against the state (Leandro v. State of North Carolina) arguing that their school districts did not have enough money to provide an equal education for their children, despite the fact that they taxed their residents higher than average. Twenty-five years later, the Leandro case remains one of the biggest education policy issues in North Carolina — and those counties — Hoke, Halifax, Robeson, Vance and Cumberland — which were among the lowest funded in the state, remain toward the bottom of the Public School Forum of North Carolina’s rankings in terms of their ability to support public schools on a per pupil basis.

Twice, the Supreme Court has ruled (1997, 2004) that North Carolina has a constitutional obligation to ensure all children have access to a sound basic education that includes competent and well-trained teachers and principals, as well as equitable access to sufficient resources. The forum’s research, however, has demonstrated that our state continues to fall short to meet that constitutional obligation, as affirmed by the Leandro rulings.

In 2018, Judge David Lee ordered WestEd, an independent educational consultant, to recommend ways for the State of North Carolina to comply with the Leandro rulings. On Dec. 10, 2019, WestEd released findings and a sequenced action plan to meet the state’s constitutional obligation.

Since 2018, parties to the Leandro case have developed a comprehensive, eight-year remedial plan identifying targeted investments in public education that North Carolina must make in order to ensure all children have access to a sound basic education. In 2021, Judge Lee ordered defendants in the Leandro case to take action to implement the remedial plan. However, Judge Lee’s order was appealed.

In March 2022, the North Carolina Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments in the Leandro case after the case was returned to the superior court to account for a state budget passed in late 2021. Judge Lee was also replaced at this time with Judge Michael Robinson who ultimately ruled that the state was responsible to fund the comprehensive remedial plan but could not be ordered to do so. Judge Robinson found that the General Assembly underfunded the Comprehensive Remedial Plan by $785 million based on the 2021-22 budget.

In August 2022, the North Carolina Supreme Court heard the case for the fourth time. On Nov. 4, 2022 the Supreme Court issued a ruling upholding the State Constitution and the rights of children, families and communities.

The majority opinion states: “This court has long recognized that our Constitution empowers the judicial branch with inherent authority to address constitutional violations through equitable remedies. For 25 years, the judiciary has deferred to the executive and legislative branches to implement a comprehensive solution to this ongoing constitutional violation. Today, that deference expires. If this court is to fulfill its own constitutional obligations, it can no longer patiently wait for the day, year or decade when the State gets around to acting on its constitutional duty ‘to guard and maintain’ the constitutional rights of North Carolina schoolchildren.”