Playing politics with public school children must end. N.C. high court can stop it :: WRAL.com

CBC Editorial: Friday, April 29, 2022; Editorial #8757
The following is the opinion of Capitol Broadcasting Company

Another judge has offered up another order saying the state continues to short-change the public school children of North Carolina.

In the ongoing effort (better than a quarter-century now) to get state officials to comply with North Carolina’s Constitutional requirement that every child have access to a quality public education, Judge Michael Robinson said this week there’s an $800 million shortfall.

There haven’t been howls of anguish or outrage from North Carolina’s legislative leaders – the reaction we’ve witnessed all too often when it comes to obeying court orders in support of the state’s public school children.

Nor have there been wild cheers of ecstatic joy from the plaintiffs and defendants in the Leandro case, who have worked together to develop the consensus Comprehensive Remedial Plan – an eight-year program that is a path to providing each child access to the quality education they’re promised.

Business Court Judge Robinson does say the state had underfunded the court-ordered plan nearly $800 million. He also says there’s plenty in the state treasury available to do it. And, he says that the state Department of Health and Human Services; the Department of Public Instruction, and the UNC System should get the funds they need to carry out the program.

But the judge DOES NOT say how that money is to get to those agencies to meet the needs of the order. Furthermore, Judge Robinson doesn’t question a state Court of Appeals decision that says a court can’t force the State Controller to release such funds to those agencies.

Essentially, he seems to be saying the state isn’t keeping its promise but there doesn’t seem to be any way – at least in the arsenal of tools Robinson seems to believe are available to him – to force anyone to act.

It now sits in the laps of the justices of North Carolina’s Supreme Court. They should act with dispatch to remedy this too-long delayed and denied state right.

The State Constitution, not partisanship nor fealty to legislative leaders, should be the high court’s mandate.

That is a concern that Chief Justice Paul Newby who is a Republican should take seriously.

Unprompted and at a critical juncture in the case, Newby, a Republican, last month replaced Superior Court Judge David Lee who’d been presiding over the case since 2016 when former Chief Justice Mark Martin – like Newby a Republican – appointed him to the task.

Lee, a Democrat, was replaced by Robinson – who’d previously been an unsuccessful GOP candidate for the state Supreme Court.

Robinson sent the matter to the high court without any mandate to force the state to act. What can be done to force the state to act and how that will be determined is now up to Newby and his fellow state high court justices.

The implications of the high court’s action won’t only be about education – but perhaps even more significantly – it will be about the authority of the courts as a co-equal branch of state government to determine the constitutionality of the legislatures actions (or in this case failure to act) and what power it has to compel another co-equal branch of state government to act in a lawful way and remedy the situation.

Newby needs to get this matter before the court and resolved as soon as possible – in a few weeks at the most.

Politics should never be placed ahead of justice – especially in our courts. Delaying, likely wanting to see the outcome of the November elections to see if the partisan complexion of the state Supreme Court might change, would be evidence of just that.

Judge Robinson did show that the state – most specifically the General Assembly – has failed its constitutional duty by failing to provide the resources — the minimum necessary — to make a quality education available to every child. Further, he noted how much should be directed to key state agencies to start accomplishing that goal.

It is now time for Newby and his high court colleagues to act — do their jobs — in pursuit of justice not politics.

Order the appropriate state officials and agencies to release and distribute the funds necessary to implement the Comprehensive Remedial Plan.