Other state courts have ordered more school funding. Will NC’s Supreme Court join them?
READ MORE
The classroom waiting game
North Carolina’s rural school systems have sought funds from the Leandro lawsuit since 1994. On Nov. 10, Superior Court Judge David Lee ordered state officials to transfer $1.7 billion to fund the first two years of the plan. But three weeks later, a three-judge N.C. Court of Appeals panel ruled that Lee exceeded his authority. Will NC schools ever get Leandro funding? This is The N&O’s special report.
Expand All
The North Carolina Supreme Court could join high courts in other states in ordering state leaders to increase public school funding.
Supreme courts in some states have declared the way schools are funded to be inadequate, paving the way for significantly increased education funding. A similar showdown could be coming to the N.C. Supreme Court, where a lower court judge’s order requiring $1.7 billion be transferred from the state treasury to fund public schools has provoked a legal debate.
The state Supreme Court has ruled multiple times since the Leandro lawsuit was first filed in 1994 that North Carolina is failing to meet the state Constitution’s guarantee of the opportunity to receive a sound basic education.
Now the Supreme Court has been asked to review an appellate panel’s order blocking the transfer of the $1.7 billion.
“It’s another hurdle that the Supreme Court, if it wants to overturn it, will have to overcome,” Theodore Shaw, director of the UNC Center for Civil Rights, said in an interview. “It can do whatever it wants to do ultimately. Just because you had this three-judge panel say you can’t do this isn’t the last word.”
The Leandro case involves a question of state law, so Shaw said the final judicial decision will rest with the N.C. Supreme Court. Shaw said there could be a crisis if the Supreme Court, which has a 4-3 Democratic majority, orders additional funding and the Republican-led General Assembly still continues to fight the Leandro plan.
“We’re in uncharted waters in North Carolina where the legislature is simply going to assert it has the right not to do what a court says has to be done to remedy a proven constitutional violation,” Shaw said.
Here’s a look at how some other state Supreme Courts have dealt with the issue of school funding.
Washington: Holding the state in contempt
In 2007, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of two families against the state of Washington accusing it of not meeting its constitutional obligation to amply fund a uniform system of education.
The Washington Supreme Court in 2012 found that the state wasn’t living up to its duty “to make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders.” The court gave the state a deadline of 2018 to address the court order.
In 2015, the court began issuing $100,000-a-day contempt of court fines against the state for not coming up with a plan to meet the deadline. The fines eventually totaled $102.9 million and were to be used for education.
The court issued an order in 2018 ending the case after state lawmakers came up with a plan that provided billions of dollars in additional funding for education.
Kansas: Providing suitable education funding
In 2010, four Kansas school districts filed a lawsuit saying that the state Constitution’s requirement that “the legislature shall make suitable provision for finance of the educational interests of the state” wasn’t being met.
The Kansas Supreme Court issued several decisions over the next few years that the state’s public school funding formula didn’t meet the adequacy requirements of the state Constitution.
In 2019, the court ruled that lawmakers had come up with a funding plan that “substantially complies” with its orders. By then, the state had increased education funding by $1 billion over the prior six years with more funding to come, according to The New York Times.
New Jersey: More funding for urban schools
In 1975, the New Jersey Supreme Court shut down public schools for eight days because the state failed to pay for a new state funding formula for public schools. The state responded by enacting its first income tax.
Families of 20 urban schoolchildren then filed a lawsuit in 1981 challenging the state’s funding system.
In 1985, the Supreme Court issued the first of multiple rulings in the case that the state must ensure urban children an education enabling them to compete with their suburban peers.
This has included ordering the state to fully fund education formulas designed to boost aid to 31 poor urban school districts.
This story was originally published December 22, 2021 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Other state courts have ordered more school funding. Will NC’s Supreme Court join them?."
