CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — On Friday, the Court voted 5 to 2 to reinstate a previous ruling that barred a trial judge from forcing the state to transfer funds as part of the Leandro case.
The Leandro case is an education funding case that has been ongoing since 1994, when several poor school districts sued the state to get more funding. In 1997, the state Supreme Court ruled that the state is constitutionally obligated to provide every student with a sound, basic education.
Several more years of trials and reports culminated in the creation of the comprehensive remedial plan, which would increase education funding by $6.8 billion over the next eight years.
The trial judge released an order forcing the state to transfer the funds for the plan, which was upheld in the Supreme Court last year. Now, with the newly Republican-led Supreme Court overturning that decision, the fate of the Leandro case is again uncertain.
Eric Houck, an expert in education finance, says that it is on the legislature to fund the plan.
“The Leandro plan exists, the dollar amounts and the programs are listed there,” Houck says. “It is now a matter of somebody having the political will to pass legislation that the governor will sign that will actually put this stuff into place.”