NC Court of Appeals blocks transfer of $1.7 billion to fund state’s public schools
A three-judge panel of the North Carolina Court of Appeals on Tuesday blocked enforcement of a trial judge’s order requiring the state to fund a $1.7 billion plan to fund public schools.
The appellate panel voted 2-1 to issue an order stating that Superior Court Judge David Lee exceeded his authority under the state Constitution when he ordered $1.7 billion to be transferred from the state treasury. Lee said the money would help ensure the state meets its constitutional obligation to provide students with a sound basic education.
The majority said their order doesn’t impact the part of Lee’s Nov. 10 decision saying that the funding is necessary. But Republican judges Chris Dillon and Jefferson Griffin said it’s up to the legislative and executive branches to provide the money.
“The Separation of Powers clause prevents the courts from stepping into the shoes of other branches of government and assuming their constitutional duties,” according to the majority opinion. “We have pronounced our judgment. If the other branches of government still ignore it, the remedy lies not with the courts, but at the ballot box.”
Democratic judge John Arrowood dissented, saying only a temporary stay should have been granted. He questioned the decision to grant a permanent order blocking enforcement of Lee’s decision without granting a full hearing before the Court of Appeals.
Providing a sound basic education
The appellate intervention is the latest chapter in the long-running Leandro school funding case.
The Leandro court case was initially filed in 1994 by low-wealth school districts to get more state funding. Melanie Dubis, the attorney for the districts, said Tuesday they’re reviewing their legal options.
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. Lee, a retired Union County judge and registered Democrat, was assigned the case by the Supreme Court in 2016.
In his Nov. 10 court order, Lee wrote that the courts had waited long enough for state lawmakers to act.
“To allow the State to indefinitely delay funding for a Leandro remedy when adequate revenues exist would effectively deny the existence of a constitutional right to a sound basic education and effectively render the Constitution and the Supreme Court’s Leandro decisions meaningless,” Lee wrote. “The North Carolina Constitution, however, guarantees that right and empowers this Court to ensure its enforcement.”
Lee backed a plan developed by an education consultant that includes things such as pay raises for teachers, more funding for low-wealth school districts and expansion of the N.C. Pre-K program.
The following week, the General Assembly approved a new state budget that was signed into law by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper that funds about half of the Leandro plan amount. GOP legislative leaders said they didn’t consider Lee’s order to have the force of law so they only funded the items they wanted to include.
“The people of North Carolina through their elected legislators, not an unelected county-level trial judge, decide how to spend tax dollars,” Senate leader Phil Berger said in a statement Tuesday after the appellate decision was released. “Rather than accepting responsibility for lagging achievement and outright failure, the Leandro parties insist that the pathway to student improvement is always the simple application of more money.”
Separation of powers
Lee had ordered state Controller Linda Combs, state Treasurer Dale Folwell and state Budget Director Charles Perusse to fund the first two years of the plan.
Combs, who was nominated by former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory, filed a petition last week asking the Court of Appeals to block the court order. Combs echoed the arguments of Republican legislative leaders who said that the state Constitution only gives the General Assembly the authority to appropriate money.
The panel’s GOP majority granted a writ of prohibition, which restrains trial judges “from proceeding in a matter not within their jurisdiction.” The majority said that Lee’s order to transfer the funds “would devastate the clear separation of powers between the Legislative and Judicial branches.”
“Simply put, the trial court’s conclusion that it may order petitioner to pay unappropriated funds from the State Treasury is constitutionally impermissible and beyond the power of the trial court,” the majority ruled.
But Arrowood questioned the panel’s rapid decision to go beyond a temporary stay of Lee’s order, noting how it wasn’t slated to go into effect until Dec. 10.
“Rather, as the majority’s order shows shortening the time for a response was a mechanism to permit the majority to hastily decide the matter on the merits, with only one day for a response, without a full briefing schedule, no public calendaring of the case and no opportunity for arguments and on the last day this panel is constituted.
“This is a classic case of deciding a matter on the merits using a shadow docket of the courts.”
This story was originally published November 30, 2021 at 5:56 PM with the headline "NC Court of Appeals blocks transfer of $1.7 billion to fund state’s public schools."
