By Mildred Robertson
America struggles to maintain its preeminence on the world stage. Fueled by an educational system that purports to provide universal education to all of its citizens, it is stymied by the fact that many Americans are not ready for the challenge. This is due in part to the countless number of minority and low-income individuals who do not receive the same quality of education as their white and high-income counterparts. North Carolina is among the states that have struggled with this issue and has recently taken front and center stage as the N.C. Supreme Court faces off with the state legislature about its failure to budget court-ordered funding to bring equity to North Carolina classrooms.
In the 1994 landmark Leandro v. State of North Carolina case, the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled both in 1997 and 2004 to affirm the fundamental right of every child to have access to a sound, basic education. It is the court’s position that the state has a constitutional obligation to ensure all children have access to well-trained teachers and principals and equitable access to sufficient resources. North Carolina, the court said, has not met its constitutional requirement to ensure that the state does not fall short of this obligation.
The case has been heard on all three levels of North Carolina’s judicial system and is before the Supreme Court for the fourth time. The issue is whether statewide violations of a student’s right to access a sound basic education exist and whether the courts can compel the state to transfer $785 million to state agencies to remedy any violation they may find.
The Republican General Assembly has refused to legislate the necessary funding to implement the plan. Now the issue is whether the trial court judge has the right to order the Leandro Plan to be funded. If the Supreme Court finds the trial court judge didn’t have the authority to order the funding and implementation of the Leandro Plan, then the case is dead.
While there are many nuances to this lawsuit, the basic issue is that many North Carolina students continue to suffer under an underfunded educational system that provides disparate education to citizens of the state based on race and income. The political machinations by the Republican legislature to continue to underfund low-wealth school boards and deny a sound basic education to minorities is the issue.
It is not due to a lack of revenue that the legislature has failed to finance the implementation of the Leandro Plan. According to the U.S. News & World Report, the state has a $6.2 billion budget surplus. Revenue projections for the current fiscal year exceed previous projections by 15%. That’s an increase of $4.2 billion dollars. So for what reason could the legislature balk at implementing the necessary funding? Surely it would have to be more than the mechanics of how the judiciary compelled them to meet their constitutional obligation to provide all North Carolinians with adequate funding for a sound basic education. If that were the case, they would fix the process and fund the plan. Instead, the Republican General Assembly argues that this decision represents a power grab by a Democratic court. More honestly, however, they just don’t want to implement the plan. It is a plan they have fought for close to thirty years.
North
Carolina citizens get the short end of the stick while the courts and the
legislature go round-and-round regarding whether the courts can mandate necessary
funding. Meanwhile, another class of North Carolina public school children return
to school this fall to a substandard education system that is under-resourced
and anything but sound.
2 comments:
Great, informative article. The real crime not being adjudicated by any of our criminal court judges is the long-term injury perpetrated on children for 28 years. All those who have been AGAINST the children should have been prosecuted under child abuse laws.
Just imagine if the original decision back when Bill Clinton was President had been followed. How might those children entering the impacted school since then have been affected in a positive way?
Ultimately, this harkens back to the original 1940's efforts of Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Marshall as they began their journey toward the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown Decision. Their case was originally focused on the horrendous spending patterns that deprive Black and Brown children access to an EQUAL EDUCATION. As you recall, the Brown Decision eventually focused on the inherent defect of SEPARATE EDUCATION. The Leandro Case seems to be fighting Houston and Marshall's original fight at the State level, but few make that connection.
Still, your article makes clear that we have a major systemic problem requiring ALL of our attention! Thank You for keeping us informed...
Very informative and enlightening. We seem to keep fighting the same battles over and over, equality, racism, discrimination, division, etc. And it seems to be that powerful people (republicans, corporations, 1%) use all of this to maintain their power.
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