This Thursday, the North Carolina Supreme Court will consider whether the state needs to pay about $700 million to fund education improvements in the Tarheel State as ordered by a trial court.
The school funding case, known as the Leandro case, has been in the courts for nearly three decades now, when school districts in low-wealth areas of the state sued, alleging they weren’t receiving the same quality of education as other areas.
Since then, the state Supreme Court has ruled multiple times that North Carolina is violating its constitutional obligation for a “sound basic education” for every child.
Now the case is back in court, after an appeal from N.C. Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore, who question the authority of a judge to order the state to pay.
We’ll hear the history of this 30-year-old case, what the opposing sides of the argument are saying, and what’s at stake.
GUESTS:
- Ann Doss Helms, WFAE education reporter.
- Matt Ellinwood, with the North Carolina Justice Center where he is the director of the Education & Law Project. https://www.ncjustice.org/author/matt-ellinwood/
- Mitch Kokai, senior political analyst for the John Locke Foundation. https://www.johnlocke.org/about/team/mitch-kokai/
- Ann McColl, attorney and state constitutional scholar, contributor to Education NC news website. https://www.ednc.org/author/amccoll/
