NC Republican Judge reduces required funding amount for education

According to a state court ruling on Tuesday, North Carolina still owes its public schools millions of dollars towards education spending.

Reaffirming Superior Court Judge David Lee’s order, Judge Michael Robinson found that the newly passed state budget falls short in funding the plan to resolve the decades-long Leandro education case. 

However, the Republican judge cut the amount lawmakers needed to meet the state’s education inequities down to half of a previous judicial order.

• According to the Associated Press, Robinson reduced the amount needed to invest in the comprehensive remedial plan that outlines steps the state must take to meet its constitutional obligation to ensure students have access to sound basic education.
  
• The state’s general fund has the money to meet this price drop according to Robinson yet, the unspent funding must be approved by the Republican-led legislature.
  
• Unfortunately, the Republican-led legislature has a track record of Republican leaders pushing back against funding education in accordance with the Leandro remedial plan, and willfully ignoring Lee’s prior demands. 

Among changes to other previous orders, Robinson’s reduction of funds to invest in the Leandro remedial plan creates a significant setback to ensure students obtain a sound, basic education.

The original cost, which the state can readily cover the first two years, was put aside in favor of a price tag that is more appealing to Republicans.

Without an order to transfer the money, however, the question remains if those lawmakers will yet again skirt responsibility for our schools by simply ignoring this order, which lacks any consequences if they do.