Educational Misconduct

22Jun NCSJP Budget, Education No comments

Buried in the fog of budget negations and all-day legislative sessions, there was some significant educational news last week.

Of course, the biggest news of the week was the huge cut to educational funding for the North Carolina public schools made law by the override of Governor Perdue’s budget veto. As a result of the new budget, North Carolina schools can expect more than $120m less from the state than they received last year. That might not be so bad, but in the past two years more than $300m has been cut, so it’s not as if we’re just losing a few new basketballs for gym class – we may be losing gym class. And band. And choir. And art. And teachers.

The problem, however, is that many districts across the state have already cut many of these programs, so they are wondering what is left to cut. Wealthier districts such as Wake and Durham will weather the cuts relatively well, but poorer districts are really in a bid, since counties are equally strapped for cash and are unable to make up the shortfall.

All of this would be bad anywhere, but North Carolina has been here before.

Leandro vs. State of North Carolina, commonly referred to as “The Leandro Case,” was a law suit filed in 1994 on behalf of students and parents from five low wealth North Carolina counties. These citizens argued that their school districts were unable to raise adequate funding and that the state was failing to provide equal education to all students by providing equal funding, as they argued was assured in the State Constitution.

The case made it to the North Carolina Supreme Court in 1999. The judge ruled that the State has not been providing a “sound, basic education” to the students in these low wealth counties, which every student in the state is assured to have according to the State Constitution. Although equal quality of education is guaranteed, equal funding is not a part of this according to the Constitution and the court’s ruling.

The legacy of Leandro may well come back to bite North Carolina as we begin to see the results of all of this budget cutting. Judge Howard Manning, the presiding judge in the Leandro case has already said he will investigate the the cuts to see if they run afoul of his ruling. A hearing is scheduled this morning on the matter.

Republicans are rather proud of their budget, however. According to House Speaker Thom Tillis, “I’d have to say we’ve exceeded my expectations for what we could accomplish.”

He’s right, of course – leading North Carolina close to the lowest per-pupil spending in the county definitely exceeded our expectations.