Thirty-one years ago, the North Carolina Supreme Court heard a case about education inequities related to school funding, often referred to as “Leandro.”
But multiple years and court rulings later, additional money has still not been released to the state’s public schools. That had Winston-Salem resident Katie Sonnen-Lee wondering:
“What is the status of the Leandro case that's been working its way through the courts for decades, and how could funding the Leandro plan, like the courts ordered, improve the budget crisis in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools?”
For this edition of Carolina Curious, WFDD’s Amy Diaz spoke with Kris Nordstrom, a senior policy analyst with North Carolina Justice Center’s Education & Law Project.
Interview Highlights
On the history of the case:
"Leandro started in 1994 when five districts sued the state for not living up to its constitutional obligation to provide decent schools to all students, regardless of where they live or who they are, who their parents are. And every step along that case, the courts have said the state is not living up to that constitutional obligation. Fast forward all the way to 2020, Governor Cooper decided to stop fighting the case and figure out what it actually takes to provide students with constitutional education. So they created an eight-year plan accepted by the plaintiffs in the case as well as the defendants. Everyone's all on board ... 2022, the Supreme Court said, 'Yeah, you have to do this plan.'"
On Leandro's current status:
"Unfortunately, after that, the state controller objected to having to transfer funds, and that question about, 'Can the courts force the state to transfer funds to schools?' which was something that the Supreme Court had just ruled upon weeks before, in November of 2022, they said that they needed to look into it again. Even though, you know, the facts hadn't changed. They had another hearing back in February of 2024, and for some unknown reason, this new Supreme Court, controlled by Republicans, has yet to issue its latest ruling."
On what's next for Leandro:
"My understanding is the state Supreme Court releases its rulings about once a month, and every one of these dates we've been sitting here saying, 'OK, this is the month, this is the month,' and it keeps not happening. Initially, the speculation prior to November of 2024 was that the Supreme Court would have a negative ruling against Leandro, and I think that would be broadly unpopular. You know, folks support public schools. Folks think investing in public schools is a good thing. Folks think students' constitutional rights shouldn't be violated. So they thought, maybe that's why the Supreme Court was holding off on an unpopular opinion, but they've continued to hold off, and it is totally unclear to me why they've done so at this point. I think it's important to note that the state is still under an open court order to fully fund the Leandro plan."
On what the Leandro plan would mean for schools:
"It's a comprehensive plan starting from early education, so before kids even get to Kindergarten, all the way through to transitions to higher ed, so there are big increases in child care subsidy, NC Pre-K — that was to be expanded a lot — and then once they get into school, increasing the supports. First of all, having your social workers, your psychologists, your counselors, funded at industry-recommended levels. There would be increases in teacher pay and in professional development. There is additional staffing for teacher assistants, and then really changing the way we fund schools to make it a lot more equitable. So provide more funds where the greatest needs are, so students from families with low incomes, students with disabilities, English language learners. You know what it means for Winston-Salem/Forsyth is that once this program reached its eighth year, Winston-Salem would be receiving over $100 million above what its current funding levels are, and that would be year after year. That's not a one-time thing. You know, the Leandro plan was built off of a multi-year study from some of the nation's leading nonpartisan policy experts to help our students get the kinds of schools they deserve."
On the relevance of Leandro amid WS/FCS budget crisis:
"I mean, it's very relevant, you know, my understanding of the situation in Winston-Salem/Forsyth is that there was this influx of federal money that the district used it to meet some vital needs, some basic needs that the state is not meeting. And they did a poor job, I guess, of winding down those needs, making it clear that they were time-limited. Because those federal funds were time-limited, they didn't continue into the school year. But really, if the state were doing its job, those needs would have already been met. We can also look at all the statistics. You know, North Carolina ranks dead last in school funding effort. You know, the amount we spend relative to the size of our economy, which tells us a that the state is not doing its job that it's supposed to do, but also it tells us that we can afford to be doing a lot more if we made just the average effort of what other states in the country are doing, dedicating the same share of our economy to our schools as other states, we'd need to increase funding in North Carolina by $7.7 billion, or about 50%. That's above and beyond what the Leandro plan calls for. So we can afford to do these things."