Source: WRAL
The North Carolina Supreme Court will hear arguments in August on the long-running Leandro school funding case.
Beginning the week of Aug. 29, parties in the case will be able to challenge a lower court’s order by Superior Special Court Judge Michael Robinson that ruled the state owed the $785 million of the proposed Comprehensive Remedial Plan. The Republican judge’s designated amount is a significant reduction of what lawmakers needed to meet in order to fully fund the state’s education from a previous judicial order.
The original cost, which the state could readily cover the first two years, was put aside in favor of a price tag that was more appealing to state Republicans.
Robinson’s ruling also failed to specify how the funds should be transferred – leaving that open for the state Supreme Court.
Last fall, Superior Court Judge David Lee, who was removed from overseeing the case in favor of a Republican judge, ordered legislators to resolve the state’s decades-long failure to meet its constitutional obligation in providing children with the opportunity to obtain a sound, basic education.
Despite the demands, Republicans dragged their feet on the opportunity to fully fund public schools, increase educators’ pay to decent living wages, expanded pre-kindergarten and early childhood education and tackle crumbling school infrastructures, among many other things.
