As the legislative short session kicked off Tuesday, House Democrats wasted no time acting on the NC Supreme Court’s reversal of a key decision on the Hoke County Board of Education v. State of North Carolina lawsuit, known by most as the Leandro case.
In 2022, the court ordered the legislature to fund the Comprehensive Remedial Plan partially, which would have significantly increased funding for public schools on account of Leandro’s original claim that the state was not fulfilling its constitutional duty to provide a sound, basic education to all children.
But a partisan shake-up led the court to rehear oral arguments in 2024. Leandro’s fate hung in the balance for just over two years until the eventual decision this month, which said the court actually does not have the authority to tell the legislature how to spend its money.
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Now, Rep. Julie von Haefen, D-Wake, is attempting to take matters into her own hands — for the seventh time.
“Well, here we are again,” von Haefen said at a press conference on Tuesday.
“The short session’s starting today, and when I sat down to write my remarks for today, all I could think of is, I’m tired. I’m tired of asking, I’m tired of filing these bills. I’m tired of standing at microphones begging this state to fund public education. I’m tired of being ignored by this legislative majority, and I’m tired of being dismissed by the Supreme Court.”
House Bill 1017, “Sound Basic Education for Every Child,” is von Haefen’s seventh bill seeking to fund the Leandro plan. She called the court’s recent decision a “procedural sidestep,” as it didn’t address past rulings that said North Carolina is not meeting its constitutional obligation to provide every child with a sound, basic education, only that the legislature wasn’t obligated to follow the court’s previous order.
“The last determination by the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of our public education system was back in 2022 when the court found that the legislature failed to guard and maintain the constitutional rights of North Carolina school children,” von Haefen said.
“And then, in his April 2 decision, Justice Newby had the audacity to state that, ‘The judicial branch is not the venue in which to seek educational policy reform.’ This ignores the entire foundation of Leandro. The state Constitution is not a policy preference.”
The judicial branch has washed its hands of this issue and thrown it back to the legislature, she said.
“Well, fine, then let’s own it,” she said.
“It is our responsibility now, and now there’s nobody left to hide behind. There’s no more excuses, no more delay, no more deflection, no more shifting blame.”
The 47-page bill proposes changes like expanding the NC Teaching Fellows forgivable loan program; salary supplements for teachers, school psychologists and nurses; and incrementally increasing appropriations for low-wealth counties like those in the Leandro case.
Of the bills von Haefen has filed related to Leandro, not one of them received a hearing by a committee.
The biggest barrier for those bills in the past, and HB 1017 going forward, is ensuring it is referred to the proper committee so that it has a fair chance, she said. Historically, they have been sent to the committee on Rules, Calendar and Operations. She hopes to see this bill sent to the House’s education appropriations or K-12 committees instead.
“The roadblock is it’s very frustrating that these ideas, these concepts, these policy proposals, are never even allowed to be debated,” von Haefen said.
“… That is a disservice to the people of North Carolina. That is not the way we should be running this building, this state government. Everybody should have the opportunity to share their ideas, and if they don’t like those ideas, that’s fine, but let’s have a conversation. At this point we’re not even allowed to have that conversation, and that’s extremely frustrating.”
The issue of school funding has become increasingly politicized in the decades since Leandro was filed, with support and opposition to it falling squarely along party lines.
On the other hand, some say it is largely Republican infighting that’s led to the lack of a state budget, a sore spot for those hoping to see pay raises for teachers.
Rep. Lindsey Prather, D-Buncombe, and Rep. Rodney Pierce, D-Halifax, joined von Haefen and others to emphasize the importance of passing a state budget in addition to funding the Leandro plan.
“Our state has not passed a comprehensive budget since October of 2023,” Prather said.
“A lot has changed in our state since then. Cost of living has risen by 6%, and we’ve added 320,000 people to our state, and yet, funding for our schools has not risen. Salaries for our teachers have not risen beyond inflation. The federal government has cut back federally-funded programs that our schools benefited from. Over the last 15 years, this legislature has put more and more unfunded mandates onto our local government, forcing counties to tighten their own belts and cut back on services.”
Xavier Adams, a teacher at Orange High School who was named the Prudential NC Beginning Teacher of the Year in 2022, said teachers shouldn’t have to rely on a patchwork of nonrenewable grants to self-fund their students and classrooms, particularly when such a large portion of state funds are allocated to private schools.
“In other words, we are experiencing a policy-manufactured sense of scarcity in our state budget that causes an unnecessary competition for educational resources between low-income families and wealthy families,” he said.
“Consequently, private schools receive more public dollars, while public schools like Cook Literacy Model School in Winston-Salem and Madison Elementary School in Guilford County are forced to close.”
Since the legislature has been out of session, von Haefen said she’s been impressed by the advocacy from educators, even though teachers and administrators sometimes feel that they can’t speak out.
She and other lawmakers received around 50 individualized emails from teachers in Beaufort County last week detailing how the lack of a budget has impacted their classrooms, and the North Carolina Association of Educators is planning a statewide rally next week in protest of the legislature’s expansion of private school voucher programs and to call for a state budget.
Speakers and demonstrators also gathered outside the legislature ahead of the day’s proceedings to call for school funding on all fronts.
“We are here to say it clearly, we are done waiting,” said Susana Benites, statewide coordinator for Every Child NC.
“For more than 32 years, families across this state have been fighting for what should have never been a question — the right to a sound basic education. And let me be clear, this is not over. We may have lost a moment in the court, but we have not lost this fight.”
It’s that level of public pressure that will be required to pass any funding bills in such a divided legislature, von Haefen said.
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