Phil Larson: Manning a true judge

I read in the July 24 news article “Manning stepping down from bench” that Superior Court judge Howard Manning will retire at 72. This saddened me as I have followed Manning’s rulings on North Carolina’s constitutional demand that a state-funded, sound education is required for our children. Manning has repeatedly held various counties accountable to serve this important constitutional right.

Being both a judge and a Republican, Manning has never allowed political partisanship to step in the way of discharging his duties to serve the people, in particular our children, in meeting this task.

A few days later our very own Supreme Court decided our tax dollars are to be given to private schools that have no requirement to meet educational standards set by our Department of Education. This crosses boundaries of separation of church and state and ultimately will drain millions of dollars from our public schools. No wonder they chose to jump the standard judicial processes of allowing the normal Appeals/Superior Court hearings.

Surely had this landed on Manning’s docket, he would not have chosen political partisan ideology to do what was best for all of North Carolina’s children. He will be truly missed.

This story was originally published August 1, 2015 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Phil Larson: Manning a true judge."