Students from poor school disctricts might find hope in the decision in a decade-old court case urging the state legislature to increase funding for low-wealth districts.
Judge Howard Manning of the Wake County Superior Court met Tuesday with attorneys in the case, commonly known as Leandro.
In 1994, a lawsuit was filed by families and school boards from Cumberland, Halifax, Hoke, Robeson and Vance counties, arguing that the state had not provided sufficient resources in those districts.
“It was brought because students in these counties were not receiving a sound education,” said Allen Strickland, superintendent of Hoke County Schools.
Manning’s ruling, upheld twice by the N.C. Supreme Court, found that the state has a responsibility to provide each child with a satisfactory education.
The General Assembly already is taking steps to address the resource deficiencies at some schools independent of the Leandro finding. A bill introduced last week would provide low-wealth school systems with a boost of $20 million for the 2005-06 fiscal year.
Supplemental funding of low-wealth schools has been included in the state’s budget since the early 1990s, said Sen. Walter Dalton, D-Rutherford, a co-sponsor of the Senate bill.
“We began that before any decision in the Leandro case,” Dalton said, adding that he is confident that the measure will be approved. “There are a lot of districts in the state that are helped by that funding.”
Though the state is the primary funder of public education, local revenue must also be allocated to finance the school systems, said Adam Levinson, a fiscal analyst for the General Assembly. The supplemental money provides additional help for districts with low tax bases so that no system’s educational fund is too far below the state average, he said.
