NC justices need pressure on school funding. We know who should provide it. | Opinion

As Isaac Newton explained, objects at rest stay at rest unless some force is applied. Many political observers have expressed confusion as to why North Carolinians have been waiting more than two years for a ruling in the Leandro case. But what’s true in physics is also true in politics. Unless some force is applied, the Leandro case will continue to suffer from inertia.

Public education advocates are understandably frustrated by the delay. Ever since the Leandro case was filed in 1994, the courts have found the state has been failing in its constitutional duty to make sure all students have access to decent public schools. Students have now been waiting 32 years for the improvements promised by our state constitution.

In November 2022, the Supreme Court delivered a historic victory for public school students, ruling that the state must fully fund the Leandro Plan. The Leandro Plan, developed in 2020, created an eight-year path for the state to finally meet its constitutional obligation to students. The Plan mandates research-based reforms and investments such as expanding pre-kindergarten programs, boosting teacher pay, and staffing nurses, psychologists, and other student supports at recommended levels.

Funding was only halted because the partisan make-up of the Court changed in the days following the 2022 ruling. The new Chief Justice, Paul Newby, defied precedent and legal norms to provide a do-over on behalf of his partisan compatriots in the General Assembly. The case was reheard two years ago, yet we still have no ruling.

While these developments are outrageous, they shouldn’t be surprising. The delay fully suits the policy goals of Republican lawmakers and they’re facing almost no pressure to change course from the state’s highest profile Democrats.

To understand the delay, one must first understand the legal arguments of Republican legislators who oppose funding the Leandro Plan.

Republican legislators concede that students’ rights remain unfulfilled. As a result of massive tax cuts benefitting corporations and the wealthy, our school funding effort dead last in the nation. Test scores are stagnating. Teacher vacancies are at record highs. Due to an unfair state funding system, these shortfalls land hardest on students of color and students from families with low incomes. All parties agree that students are being denied their constitutionally-promised “sound basic education.”

Despite this, legislative leaders have failed to propose any alternatives to achieve a constitutionally-compliant public school system. They haven’t presented any alternative to the Leandro Plan. It remains the best, and only, path forward.

What Republican legislators have argued is much simpler … and much more extreme. They argue that the courts can’t make them comply with the Constitution.

This argument completely undermines the checks and balances undergirding our democracy. If only the legislative branch gets to decide what is constitutional, all of our constitutional rights – not just those pertaining to public school students – are at risk.

The Supreme Court justices likely recognize what a dangerous precedent would be set if they allow the legislature to simply ignore the parts of the Constitution that they don’t feel like complying with. For one, such a ruling would greatly reduce the Supreme Court’s authority. Second, the judges understand that the current partisan make-up of the legislature isn’t permanent. Newby and his fellow Republican judges surely want to avoid a future Democratic legislature unconstrained by the state constitution.

By sitting on the ruling, the Republican Supreme Court justices get the best of both worlds. They avoid setting a ridiculous precedent that strips the courts of their power while still getting their preferred policy outcome of starving public schools to provide tax cuts to corporations and wealthy North Carolinians.

Perhaps the judges could be pressured to act, but they are facing almost no pressure.

Democratic leaders have remained strangely silent. Gov. JoshStein failed to include funding for the Leandro Plan in his 2025 budget recommendations. Similarly, Superintendent Mo Green’s 2025 and 2026 legislative agendas fail to include Leandro. Neither politician mentions Leandro unless asked about the topic directly.

It’s unclear why Stein and Green are failing to pressure the Supreme Court on Leandro. The Plan provides resources for schools that parents desperately want to see. One would think it would be to Democrats’ advantage to explain how Republican legislative leaders are ignoring the Plan just to give tax cuts to corporations.

While Green and Stein’s motivations remain a mystery, the factors delaying the Leandro ruling are not. Republican justices and legislative leaders are getting the policy outcome they desire. They are facing no pressure to change course. Unless something changes, the object at rest will remain at rest.

Kris Nordstrom is a senior policy analyst at the North Carolina Justice Center.