NC Policy Watch: “All of which brings us back to that ever-present but rapidly graying elephant in the North Carolina education policy room: the quarter-century-old Leandro school funding lawsuit. For 25 years now, learned judges at various levels of the state’s judiciary have been handing down determinations in that case that state lawmakers are failing to meet their constitutional duty to provide every child in the state with access to a sound basic education.
The latest in what now seems like umpteen such rulings occurred last week when Superior Court Judge Michael Robinson – a Republican assigned to the case by the state’s Republican Chief Justice Paul Newby – ruled that state lawmakers are $785 million short in funding the first past due installment of a comprehensive remedial plan developed by court-appointed experts.
That GOP legislative leaders continue to refuse to abide by court orders and appropriate the necessary funds is truly outrageous and the latest in a long series of lawless acts by a group that has made violating the constitution one of its signature moves.
Fortunately, the final word in this long-running drama has not yet been written. Soon, the ultimate arbiter on the meaning of the state constitution – the North Carolina Supreme Court – will weigh in on the matter yet again and, one presumes, determine once and for all whether the Leandro case has any real meaning.
If the court fails to take strong action or embarks upon another spell of dithering while right-wing dark money works overtime to end the panel’s narrow 4-3 Democratic majority in this fall’s election, more than a quarter century of litigation will be shown to have been for naught. The constitution, the protections it supposedly offers, and court itself will be greatly diminished.
If, however, the justices take the next obvious step and order the immediate dispersal of the necessary funds from the state treasury or, at the very least, hold legislative leaders in contempt for their serial inaction, North Carolina could be on the verge of a massive and transformative sea change. Rather than merely “making do,” the state’s long-suffering schools will have been delivered a last chance reprieve and could, at long last, find themselves on the road to adequacy (and maybe even excellence) in the foreseeable future.”