The Western Carolina University students braved a 35-minute, 1.5-mile walk along a busy four-lane rural highway with no sidewalks to bring attention to the distance between students and the polls created by the Republican-controlled state board of elections.
“In the last two years alone in North Carolina, we have lost 19,262 teachers to other jobs; we have 7,000 teaching vacancies in the profession right now,” said Bryan Proffitt with NCAE, during the press conference.
As the delay continues, schools are left deciding which services, programs, and staff members they can afford to keep. Across the state, teachers and other state employees are also dealing with rising bills and ever-increasing health insurance plans, with some seeing their monthly premiums nearly triple. With no budget to deliver much-needed raises, this amounts to a pay cut for many.
The stakes are high as a ruling for Leandro could mean that public schools get about $1.7 billion in funding for multiple initiatives, including per-pupil spending and infrastructure. A state budget has not been passed by the Republican-led NC General Assembly, adding insult to injury.
“North Carolina’s failing grades reflect years of deliberate neglect. Lawmakers have refused to fully fund our public schools, denied educators meaningful raises, and the Supreme Court has allowed Leandro to languish. Our children cannot afford this continued failure of leadership,” said Tamika Walker Kelly, President of the NC Association of Educators.
Jackson’s office warned that losing the funding would force schools to shut down programs and could lead to layoffs in the middle of the school year. “Our kids deserve better,” Jackson said in a statement. “A surprise cut of nearly $50 million from rural schools, with virtually no notice and no allegation of misuse, is unlawful and harmful.”
After State Auditor Dave Boliek switched every county board of elections to a Republican majority, some of those county boards are now suggesting rolling back voting sites near and on North Carolina college campuses.
With the end of 2025 coming in a few weeks, North Carolina will enter into the new year without a comprehensive state budget and without a ruling on the state’s landmark school funding case.
When I was teaching from 2011 to 2017, social studies was my favorite subject—not just for the maps and timelines, but for what they revealed about how power moves. The classes explained who makes decisions, who carries their cost, and how geography and governance collide.
Two-thirds of all government funding for children comes from the state, leaving the state government with a hefty role when it comes to supporting youth and families.