RALEIGH, N.C. (NCN News) – The state’s highest court has struck down an order related to the ongoing Leandro school funding lawsuit.
The majority Republican North Carolina State Supreme Court threw out the funding plan, citing that only the North Carolina legislature has the power to make education funding decisions.
This latest ruling overturns an earlier ruling in 2022 that the state must fund what was known as the Comprehensive Remedial Plan. When Republicans took the majority on the court, they reopened their review of the case after legislative leaders challenged that plan.
The original lawsuit dates back to 1994. After a series of legal moves in 2017, Judge David Lee appointed the consultant agency WestEd to conduct a review and develop a funding plan.
The core of the case is a requirement in the state constitution which requires “a sound basic education”
State Senate President Phil Berger and then State House Speaker Tim Moore appealed the ruling.
Berger issued a statement:
“For decades, liberal education special interests have improperly tried to hijack North Carolina’s constitutional funding process in order to impose their policy preferences via judicial fiat. Today’s decision confirms that the proper pathway for policymaking is the legislative process.
“Today, North Carolina’s children have access to world-class educational opportunities because of the legislature’s commitment to improving educational outcomes. As we prepare for the short session, Senate Republicans will continue our ongoing focus on increasing parental involvement and educational opportunities for students.
“Since 2011, the Republican-led General Assembly has worked to ensure that our state’s schools prioritize student outcomes that prepare the next generation for life outside academia. In doing so, we’ve reformed how core subjects are taught, substantially increased funding, and created pathways for all students to attend a school that best meets their needs.”
Meanwhile, Demi Dowdy, spokesperson for NC House Speaker Destin Hall said, “Today’s decision rightly recognizes the constitutional role of the North Carolina General Assembly, since the state Constitution entrusts sole appropriations authority to the legislature. House Republicans remain committed to investing in public education, including through our budget proposal to raise starting teacher pay to $50,000 and provide 8.7% average raises to our public school teachers.”
Reviews of the decisions are mixed.
“North Carolina Supreme Court decision in the Leandro case is disappointing—but not surprising,” said Keith Poston, President of the WakeEd Partnership.
“The Court did not determine whether North Carolina is meeting its constitutional obligation to provide every child with the opportunity for a sound basic education. Instead, it ruled on procedural grounds and stepped back from enforcing a solution.
“What hasn’t changed is what students and teachers need,” Poston continued. “Across our state, schools are working to meet increasingly complex student needs, and teachers must be better supported—including through stronger pay and long-term investment in public education. With the courts stepping back, the responsibility now sits squarely with state leaders to act.”
But, conservatives had a different reaction to the ruling.
“This is a victory for the Constitution, the rule of law, and the people of North Carolina,” said Donald Bryson, CEO of the John Locke Foundation in a press release shortly after the ruling was announced. “The court correctly recognized that judges cannot write the state budget from the bench based on the opinions of an unelected judge and consultants from California. Budgets must be written by elected representatives who are accountable to the people—not by litigants who lost at the ballot box and went fishing for a judicial bailout.”
“Every child deserves access to a high-quality education,” said Bryson. “With this ruling behind us, lawmakers should focus on proven solutions—strengthening early literacy, rewarding excellent teachers, empowering parents with choice, and modernizing North Carolina’s broken school funding system so dollars follow students, not bureaucracies.”
The North Carolina Association of Educators issued a statement “expressing it’s disgust” with the court’s decision.
“Thousands of North Carolina students walked into overcrowded classrooms and crumbling school buildings. And thousands of educators are committed to the young people of this state, in spite of the state’s failure to adequately fund our schools, because we believe that every child deserves the best we can give them. Today, the majority of the North Carolina Supreme Court made it clear they do not share that belief,” the statement reads.
“What the court tries to pass off as a legal technicality is, instead, a moral failure. The people paying the price for our leaders’ failure are not abstractions. They are the generations of children in rural communities, past and present, who waited for 30 years for a promise never fulfilled. They are the parents and caregivers who did it all for their kids while the state failed to live up to its end of the bargain. And they are the educators who have given everything to a profession that this state continues to undervalue.”
“Don’t forget, North Carolina is ranked dead last in public school funding. No state does less for its public schools than North Carolina. That fact was cemented today by our highest court. For all North Carolinians, the constitutional promise of a sound, basic education was not erased today. It was betrayed by those in power who believe that corporate tax cuts are more important than our future generations.”
Legislative critics have argued that the legislature is prioritizing private school “opportunity scholarships” over funding public schools.