Manning Up

As we told you a few weeks ago, Judge Howard Manning held a hearing late last month to consider whether or not the cuts made to early childhood education by the recent NC state budget would violate the State constitution.  On Monday, we got his ruling.

His answer? Hellz yea.

Ok, so he was a bit more professional than that, but there was no confusion as to his intent:

This case has always been about the rights of children. This case is about the individual right or every child to have the equal opportunity to obtain a sound basic education.

…

The fact that these small children are at-risk is no their fault and they may not be denied their constitutional right to the opportunity to obtain a sound basic education by adults.  Likewise, it is not the adults’ right to deny them their opportunity.  In fact, adults have no right, morally or legally to do so.

Simply put, it is the duty of the State of North Carolina to protect each and every one of these at-risk and defenseless children, and to provide them their lawful opportunity, through a quality prekindergarten program, to take advantage of their equal opportunity to obtain a sound basic education as guaranteed by the North Carolina constitution.

Conclusions that like make gets my legal blood pumping – rulings rarely read as clearly as this.  Judge Manning has put all the cards on the table here, making it crystal clear that he is drawing the line in the sand, and the line is right here.  Speaker Tillis has, of course, taken issue with the ruling, spouting his trademark rubbish. The legislative consequences of this ruling are still playing out, but suffice to say that is will give quite a headache to the architects of the budget. And it should.

Moving past the legal and political implications of this ruling for a moment, Judge Manning’s point about the obligation of adults to the children is perhaps the most striking philosophical statement in this order.  At the risk of channeling Hilliary Clinton, perhaps this is an appropriate time to re-think our village response to educating, if not raising, the most vulnerable of our children. As adults, we are collectively tasked with providing for the next generation, and not just when it’s easy and convenient.  That is, after all, the definition of commitment.

Being a judge is not an easy job, especially when you have to make politically-charged decisions such as this. People will either praise you or damn you, depending on which side of the decision they happen to fall.  I had a retired federal appeals court judge as a professor in law school who used to say that playing football in high school was the best training for judicial service, since your job generally consists of protecting the weak (the quarterback) from an angry mob trying to flatten him. Having met Judge Manning and had a brief opportunity to speak with him a few years ago, I am convinced that he is not attempting to make a political statement – he is just trying to follow the law.

Stretching that football analogy just a bit further, I remember being told more than once while playing football in high school to “man up” and keep going after a particularly painful play.  In this case, I suggest “Manning up” may be a more appropriate position to which we should aspire.

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