NC Supreme Court orders state to increase funding for public schools in Leandro case

Just days before North Carolina’s midterm elections, the state Supreme Court’s Democratic majority ruled Friday that state officials can be ordered to transfer funds to try to provide students their constitutional right to a sound basic education.

The Supreme Court upheld a lower judge’s November 2021 ruling requiring the state to fund the Leandro plan, which outlines steps to try to provide every child with highly qualified teachers and a highly qualified principal. The judges sent the case back to a trial judge to determine how much must be transferred.

The initial order had required a $1.75 billion transfer before it was lowered to $785 million by a different trial judge.

The decision comes after nearly 30 years of court hearings over the role the state should play in providing children an education. It marks the first time the Supreme Court has ordered the state to provide funding.

“For twenty-five years, the judiciary has deferred to the executive and legislative branches to implement a comprehensive solution to this ongoing constitutional violation,” Judge Robin Hudson wrote for the court majority. “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.”

The 4-3 decision was rendered along party lines with the four Democrats ordering the funding transfer and the three Republicans dissenting. But control of the court could shift after Tuesday’s election.

The court’s Republican judges argued that the majority was overstepping its bounds with the ruling.

“Under no circumstance, however, should this Court take the astonishing step of proclaiming that ‘inherent authority’ permits the judiciary to ordain itself as super-legislators,” Judge Phil Berger Jr. wrote in the dissent. “This action is contrary to our system of government, destructive of separation of powers, and the very definition of tyranny as understood by our Founding Fathers.”

Long-running legal fight

The long-running Leandro school funding lawsuit was initially filed in 1994 by low-wealth school districts to get more state funding. The case gets its name from one of the families that was initially part of the lawsuit.

Over the years, the state Supreme Court has ruled that the state constitution guarantees every child “an opportunity to receive a sound basic education” and that the state was failing to meet that obligation.

Last November, the late Superior Court Judge David Lee ordered the state to transfer $1.75 billion to fund the next two years of a plan developed by a consultant. A state Court of Appeals panel blocked the order from being enforced.

The Leandro plan calls for more than $5 billion in new funding over an eight-year period. Lee’s order applies to the second and third year of the plan. Future court orders could come in the years ahead.

Superior Court Judge Michael Robinson replaced Lee as the trial judge and ruled in April that last year’s state budget left the Leandro plan $785 million short of being fully funded. But Robinson removed Lee’s wording requiring the state treasurer, controller and budget director to transfer funds. Lee died Oct. 4.

Lawyers for the State Board of Education, the school districts and Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration wanted the Supreme Court to require the $785 million to be transferred.

“It’s our constitutional duty to ensure every child has access to a sound basic education,” Cooper said in a statement Friday. “As the NC Supreme Court has affirmed today, we must do more for our students all across North Carolina.”

Lawyers for Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore argued it would violate the state constitution’s separation of powers for the courts to order the money transfer. Both Republican lawmakers said that only the General Assembly has the power to appropriate state funds.

But the court’s Democratic majority said lawmakers were failing to live up to their constitutional obligation to fund education.

“The State has proven — for an entire generation — either unable or unwilling to fulfill its constitutional duty,” Hudson wrote in the court opinion. “Now, this Court must determine whether that duty is a binding obligation or an unenforceable suggestion. We hold the former: the State may not indefinitely violate the constitutional rights of North Carolina schoolchildren without consequence.

“Our Constitution is the supreme law of the land; it is not optional.”

On Friday, spokespeople from Berger’s and Moore’s offices said that they are reviewing the decision.

‘Strong step forward’

The ruling was hailed by Democratic politicians and public education advocates.

“For years, our state has not lived up to the constitutional requirement to fund a sound, basic education for our children,” House Democratic Leader Robert Reives, of Chatham County, said in a statement Friday. “The Court found that after decades of inaction, now is the time for North Carolina to uphold our obligation to provide that education.”

“It is unfortunate that the Courts have had to compel the Legislature to do what we should have done a long time ago,” Reives said.

Senate Democratic Leader Dan Blue of Raleigh called the ruling a win for the state’s children by helping to provide them access to a good education.

“Today’s #Leandro decision is a strong step forward in repairing a broken system and protecting our kids’ constitutional right to a sound basic education,” Blue tweeted Friday.

Senator Jay Chaudhuri, a Raleigh Democrat, said the ruling is long overdue and “represents a victory for every child, especially those in low-wealth school districts.”

“If the Republican leadership elects not to follow the court’s order, they will remain in violation of the state constitution and more importantly they will be violating the constitutional rights of children across the state who deserve to be able to achieve the American dream,” Chaudhuri said in an interview Friday.

Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat, tweeted that the decision was a win for North Carolina students and the future.

“It is past time for NC to adequately fund our schools so that NC’s high school graduates are ready to succeed, whether starting college or their career. I thank my team for their impressive work arguing this landmark case,” Stein said.

‘Important civil rights decision’

Tamika Walker Kelly, president of the North Carolina Association of Educators, said “an entire generation of students in North Carolina has lost out on what it means to have a fully funded education” during the long court battle.

“Our legislators have done us all a disservice by not providing adequate resources for our schools to be successful and it is up to us to hold them accountable to the constitution of our state,” Walker Kelly said in a statement Friday.

“We see every day the disparities in this state between affluent and marginalized communities and we know that today’s ruling takes us one step closer to allowing every student to grow and thrive in their public schools.”

Rick Glazier, the executive director of the left-leaning N.C. Justice Center, said the ruling has “given life” to the constitutional right to a sound basic education.

”This is the most important civil rights decision issued by the Supreme Court in decades and one which will benefit generations of North Carolina children to come,” Glazier said in a statement.

Staff writers Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan and Will Doran contributed.