Former N.C. House Speaker Jim Black has paid half of an unprecedented $1 million fine days before a court-ordered deadline, his lawyers and prosecutors said Thursday.

The Matthews Democrat is in federal prison in Pennsylvania after being convicted of accepting illegal payments from campaign contributors, mostly in cash handed over in men's bathrooms.

In a news release, attorney Allen Powell said Black paid the money to the school system in Wake County, where he was convicted.

"I always intended to leave a portion of my estate to help secure the enhancement of North Carolina's public educational system," Black said in a statement. "And while this payment comes a bit premature, I gladly give it knowing that North Carolina's children will be the beneficiaries."

Black has until January to pay the remaining $500,000, and to pay $54,000 in investigative costs to the state Board of Elections, Wake County Assistant District Attorney David Sherlin said.

The fine originally was due last year. But attorneys argued that Black was unable to sell real estate at a fair market value. A Superior Court judge set a July 1 deadline, with one condition: Black had to put up property as a guarantee.

He chose his former optometry office in uptown Charlotte, valued for tax purposes at $1.2 million. The judge wrote the property could be sold at foreclosure if necessary.

It's unclear where Black got the money to pay the fine. Mecklenburg property records indicated he still owns the uptown property.

Powell could not be reached late Thursday.

Black is due for release in 2012.