Leandro judge done waiting for budget compromise
On Monday, Superior Court Judge David Lee signaled that he’s ready to formally demand legislators to fund a remedial plan that will ensure students across the state have the opportunity for a sound basic education.
The state’s landmark school funding case has been delayed until Nov. 8 — giving time for
attorneys representing underfunded school districts and parents in the long-running Leandro school funding lawsuit to draft an order they want Lee to sign that would direct the legislature to fully fund public education.
- Monday’s delay comes several weeks after Lee warned state lawmakers that he would be ready to act if legislators continued the state’s decades-long failure to meet its constitutional obligation to provide all children with the opportunity to obtain a sound, basic education.
- “They (students) have no hope, no remedy without judicial intervention,” said David Hinojosa, an attorney representing parents in the lawsuit. “Courts must act to enforce the rights of schoolchildren”.
- For years, Republican leaders have pushed back against Lee’s demands, choosing to repeatedly push for tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy over fully funding public schools, increasing educators’ pay to decent living wages and tackling crumbling school infrastructures.
With the final weeks of budget negotiations coming, the state’s General Assembly has the opportunity to act responsibly and pass a budget that fully funds the court-ordered education plan.
As a recent editorial states, “It is past time to end the legislative leadership protracted and childish obstinance. The school-yard taunts and insults of the judge and misleading insinuations about the consensus remedial program are undignified and must stop. It has been Judge Lee’s deliberate, respectful and thoughtful approach that helped forge a consensus among the opposing parties in the Leandro lawsuit”.
Bottom Line:
For decades, children across North Carolina have been denied a fundamental right promised to them by the state’s constitution. With a comprehensive remedial plan, the steps to undo this decades long-failure have been presented, yet Republicans leaders continue refusing to invest in the children of our state.
Once again, Republican legislative leaders have a choice. They can continue prioritizing political gains or stand with the children, educators and families across our state by upholding the state Constitution and fully funding the Leandro remedial plan.
Join the hundreds of parents, educators and students sharing their stories about underfunded schools and demanding lawmakers to fully fund education at T.R.U.E Report Portal
