WestEd

After 28 years of legal wrangling, North Carolina’s lawmakers continue to fail children by not adequately funding public schools, lawyers for the plaintiffs in the long-running Leandro school funding case told the State Supreme Court on Wednesday.

After nearly three decades, the Leandro case has yet to produce the remedy the plaintiffs say the constitution requires. Now, the courts will weigh in again Attorney Larry Armstrong has been a part of the state’s landmark Leandro school funding lawsuit for more than 27 years. The attorney for Halifax County Schools filed the original legal challenge in 1994.

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Despite 1997 Leandro ruling, many NC K-12 students are not receiving the "sound basic education" the constitution guarantees them If North Carolina lawmakers want to see what could happen if they don’t comply with a court order to adequately fund public schools, they can look to the state of Washington.

The state Constitution’s promise of sound basic education isn’t taken lightly in eastern North Carolina.   Parents in the mostly rural, economically depressed region understand that for poor children, a high-quality education is the surest path to life above the poverty line.