Leandro: The case for a sound basic education

This is one of the school systems trying to force

the state to change the way it helps fund education

violates students all rights to a sound basic education as

defined by the Leandro case The Leandro Leandro case Leandro

issues

You've heard the name for 27 years in north Carolina

schools meet the Leandro requirement of the Leandro

Leandro case that case

But what is the Leandro case Leandro is an opportunity

to equal the playing field an opportunity for us to

fix things so all kids can have the same opportunities

other kids have

And why should you care the most meaningful constitutional case

in the history of the state I'm ready

I'm ready

I'm Wrl investigative documentary reporter Kristen severance and how many

kids We traveled all over the state Let's talk about

Leandro and interviewed dozens of people to answer those questions

Leandro is what resources they sound

Basic education

The school systems that filed the lawsuit

Leandro is a landmark education case

The lawsuit was filed in 1994 by five poor school

districts who said their students weren't getting a sufficient education

compared to students in wealthier counties

I'm getting sick of this

It's still going on and it impacts every county in

the state

Feels like political games

That's nearly 30 years of rulings appeals and arguments

If we don't have the funds to get them ready

how are they going to be successful in life

But I have to ask doesn't that take money

Sure it takes money

But whatever the money we're paying now ain't working is

the people who often say it's not about money or

the people who have money

While everyone fights about Leandro and what's happening in the

courtroom

We don't need to have judges assuming that sort of

authority

This is first grade

I wanted to find out what's happening in classrooms across

the state and so many kids are coming out of

schools unable to read at grade level

What is that going to mean for society were saying

that they're less than that we can throw them away

This is leandro the case for a sound basic education

This is a raelian Springs Institute of Global Learning in

Littleton north Carolina

The elementary school is about 70 miles from Raleigh in

rural Halifax County

One of the five original counties who sued the stain

were 732 square miles

Many of our kids have to ride the bus 90

minutes each morning to and from school there are less

than 200 pre k through fifth graders here 99% of

them qualify for free and reduced lunch

I'm gonna take a little tour of the building

Their principal Marcus jones used to walk these same halls

as a student

It feels good because I'm home when jones first started

as the principal six years ago or Alien Springs was

deemed a failing school by the state jones changed school

culture by getting teachers and families to see he was

committed invested here and the parents understand that and they

see that the elementary schools report card is now a

C

Jones is proud of a lot at the elementary school

like their dual spanish immersion program

But for some parents what the school has isn't enough

So right now we're in a kindergarten area

One of the first things I noticed on our tour

the small class sizes in kindergarten those small class sizes

aren't because Halifax can afford to hire more teachers

It's because parents are choosing to send their kids to

charter schools instead of Iranian Springs jones asks every parent

why Because the number one thing they talk about is

field trips

These major field trips that's going on

It's not about academics it's not about the safety of

the schools it's just about what they can do as

far as exposure and how does that feel It's heartbreaking

to be honest with you

It's heartbreaking because we're doing great things in Halifax County

He said area charter schools can afford field trips and

other programs

His school can't

They have more enhancement classes

I think they are able to offer spanish band music

All of that here were only able to offer PE

and that's it for our students and it's no surprise

the only elective offered at the school is with the

students we interviewed love most about their day

What is your favorite thing that you get to do

at this school

My like P

A lot that we get to exercise I like the

physical activities and it's fun

What is your favorite thing at school P we can't

compete because we can only offer them the bare minimum

That's to give them the best instruction that we can

possibly give with the funds that we have

Educators tell me counties like Halifax aren't fighting for extras

in some ways they're still fighting for basics

So currently we in the media center the media center

which is also the library had some books on display

that were more than 30 years old

Back when west Germany still existed and was separated from

east Germany by the Berlin wall We don't have a

lot of resources like the other counties do in the

big cities

First grade teacher Connie Wheeler said they don't have the

money to hire enough teaching assistants so students can get

one on one support something they really need

Since Covid I know I'm a first grade teacher but

sometimes I have to go down to kindergarten and pre

K level just to get my kids back where they

were where they need to be

Now I feel like we need assistance to assist the

teacher and working with these kids to provide them with

more intervention

Second grade teacher pauletta Broadnax spends half her day as

a second grade teacher and half as a coach for

other teachers

If the school had the money they'd hire someone else

to do one of those jobs

And when you have so many roles it's hard to

really focus on one job and really do it Well

that's the only enhancement

And jones said the district doesn't have the funds for

needed positions in every school right now

We have to share the counselor We have to share

the social worker and a nurse

I get maybe two days out of the week

Students are dealing with a lot of mental social issues

experiencing death

We need those individuals here to help them

They say these are issues many public schools in counties

with more money just don't have to deal with

By law the state is supposed to fund education in

north Carolina

The counties can levy property taxes to raise additional funds

for education and some counties can give a lot more

to their school systems than others

Based on their tax base

Halifax County School District gets $2,240 per student

While a more wealthy district Chapel Hill Carrboro gets $7,228

per student according to the National Educators Association

North Carolina spends $11,385 per student Ranking us 37th out

of 50 states

We're doing the best we can with the limited resources

that we have

Dr

Eric Cunningham has been in charge of Halifax County schools

for six years

This is the toughest job I ever loved

The waves here are something that I've never encountered before

in my 30 years of experience he calls the problems

in Halifax waves things like generational poverty for his family's

he says more money equals more resources which equals a

better education for students

It's money that I need to flow through Halifax on

a reoccurring basis because our kids matter

These concerns continue Well after elementary school we spent a

day at Northwest Collegiate and Technical Academy one of two

high schools in Halifax County School district

Steve Hunter is principal

How does it feel ultimately to be a principal at

a place you went to school It's a powerful feeling

It's a unique feeling

Hunter graduated from northwest in 1987 when he became principal

here four years ago it was a failing school biology

teacher

Richard Yuka started around that same time period

Hello We stopped by unannounced so he's not wearing a

microphone

What do you think of the school It has made

milestones in terms of improvement

I mean I've looked at the history of this when

I came here

They used to call it the Wild Wild West

If I'm right Unfortunately

Yes

Unfortunately Hunter said his first goal was to bring down

the physical altercations happening at school that were leading to

suspensions

So if kids on campus are able to learn more

with hunter at the helm the graduation rate at northwest

has gone from 70 to 83%

They've gone from a D to a C rating

If this poor title one school in eastern north Carolina

is a C school

Imagine if we have the extra millions based on the

tax base that we don't have if we had it

what could we do Just imagine Hunter can't afford to

hire a spanish teacher which means the kids at a

raelian springs two miles away learning spanish from pre K

to second grade can't continue it

In high school

I'm asking for things that that we should have and

with Leandro is possible if the money's come to us

The fight for funding and resources in counties like Halifax

has been going on since at least 1994 when five

counties sued the state in a lawsuit named Leandro first

the state of North Carolina give me your first last

name please

My name is Rob Leandro

So you are actually a person

I am actually a real person

Not just a case coming up here from the man

whose name is literally the lawsuit has always been a

fight

I mean we had to go through the courts for

a reason

Mm hmm

The school pretty much looks the same As a hoke

county student in the 90s Rob

Leandro knew his school didn't have as much as schools

in other districts

14 year old

You know it's funny like where I saw a sports

So like I would go play games and other places

and say like well they have a weight room in

the field house and New Jersey's and we're wearing the

same thing

The team wore 20 years ago

I wasn't in other classrooms at the time

So I kind of assumed it was normal for us

to run out of copy paper halfway through the year

to use books that were 15 or 20 years old

He was in eighth grade when the superintendent asked him

and his parents if they wanted to join a lawsuit

against the state of north Carolina and we felt like

it was important and we wanted to be a part

of it

These five counties sued the state saying they couldn't afford

to provide an adequate education to their students

Several students were named in the suit butt Leandro's name

was listed first

This was the spring of 1994

So people thought we were suing to get more money

for the schools and I think what we were trying

to show was our students aren't doing as well

We don't have the same resources

Can you see the Leandro said they didn't have a

science lab so they had to watch kids in Chapel

Hill do their labs on a closed circuit tv

We kind of thought the case would be decided maybe

by my senior year

All these resources would maybe come in if we won

and then it would be great Rob

Leandro is now a 42 year old lawyer with kids

of his own 27 year old lost for nearly three

decades 30 years and many court rulings later

The case is still going on

Many blame politics

Well a quarter-century later here we are rick

Lazio is a former member of the Cumberland County Board

of Education former member of the House of Representatives and

now runs the N

C

Justice Center

He said everything happening when the suit was filed is

happening now and that seems to me to be an

unconscionable circumstance and a legacy none of us want to

continue

Okay Leandro has been going on for so long but

here are some key dates

Leandro was filed in 1994 in 1997

The State Supreme Court ruled every child in North Carolina

has a right to a sound basic education a right

guaranteed by the state constitution in 1868 and we put

it into the constitution of the state

Unlike almost any other state in the country

In 2004 the court said the state was failing to

provide that sound basic education according to the court a

sound basic education means schools with competent certified teachers Schools

with a competent well trained principle and resources necessary to

support effective instructional programs

Because something's wrong in that classroom

Judge Howard Manning said these three things are what Leandro

is all about

So this is for every child doesn't matter what color

you are poor you are where you came from and

where you live

Ain't no excuse

You've got to be lando compliant

Judge Manning oversaw the case from 1997 until 2016

He spent most of that time calling out school districts

with low test scores

This is not a money case Manning always said this

was an educational achievement case

It was not about funding

That's what leandro is

There's no word in there about money

He said kids still aren't getting a sound basic education

So fixing this would you say it takes bold action

It takes something big

You know it takes somebody in the classroom whose leandro

compliant

That's what it tastes

But I have to ask doesn't that take money Sure

it takes money

But whatever the money we're paying now it ain't working

is it proves itself the people who often say it's

not about money or the people who have money

That's a lot of money folks Glacier says Manning was

right about a lot during his time on the bench

He looked deeply at the student outcome data

He looked deeply at the inputs into what was causing

reduced outcomes

But Glazer said schools can't be leandro compliance without the

money for resources

You don't get the best teachers unless you enhance pay

money mattered tremendously in wanting to get those things accomplished

And I think that was the disconnect

You know these are the biggest fights when it comes

to Leandro where that funding fits in and who can

order whom to pay up

We need to have high standards

In 2016 Judge Manning retired and Judge David Lee was

assigned the case

In 2017 Governor Roy Cooper created a commission to get

Leandro figured out

In 2018 the court appointed an outside party a company

named West ed to study the entire situation and recommend

specific actions the state needed to do to comply with

Leandro

West ed interviewed 1500 people over two years and found

students We're worse off now than in the 90s

There's been a determination by the best finance study in

the country that North Carolina for 25 years has operated

an unconstitutional system

West Ed's report said fixing this would take sweeping changes

and $8 billion dollars over eight years

The report laid out a plan on how to spend

that money to overhaul the system

The real end result of this report became what's known

as the seven leandro tenants and what the state needed

to do to have these seven things in every school

high quality teachers high quality principles Equitable funding an assessment

system support for low performing schools early childhood education and

ensuring that all students are ready after graduation to see

us move along with this plan and in november of

2021 judge lee ordered the state to pay for the

first two years of the plan by transferring $1.7 billion

from the general fund for Children across the state of

north Carolina advocates called this a long overdue victory saying

the funding could fix issues in schools in nearly every

county in the state How did you feel when judge

lee ordered the money Oh it was like excitement

Finally

Yeah this may happen

Yeah

Others called it a complete overreach and they have no

plans to comply with Judge Lee's order

Quite frankly the precedent that is being set by this

court is a very dangerous precedent for our system of

government

Senate President Phil Berger says Judge Lee has no right

to order the legislature to spend a dollar that power

belongs to lawmakers

I mean I don't know Judge lee but he in

my opinion clearly does not understand our system of government

burger said not all kids are getting a sound basic

education

I don't think there's any question about that

The real question is what's the remedy What is the

appropriate thing And how is that decided Burger doesn't agree

with the premise of the West End report pointing out

it was partly paid for by education nonprofits

He's also against the plan's price tag

The idea that more money is always the answer is

pretty predictable from these so called experts because that's always

there solution burgers solution to school problems is that parents

should get to choose where their kids go to school

and that includes private schools

Families who can't afford it can apply for opportunity scholarships

but republicans admit that won't help all kids Do you

not want to give money to these schools or do

you not want to be told by a judge that

you have to do it No

Um So if if the question is whether or not

we have made decisions to fund these schools then all

you have to do is look at the budget that

we have adopted

The state passed a budget at the end of 2021

million Plan like teacher salary increases

Another 100 million went for things like teacher and administrator

salary supplements

I've never seen a budget pass with the kind of

numbers that we saw in the House and the Senate

but Glaser said that still falls short of Judge Lee's

order of $1.7 billion to fund the Leandro plan funded

about 50% of the first two years which is sort

of half compliance

We don't let litigants just sort of saying well I'll

comply with the part of the judgment I want and

I won't comply with the part of the judgment

I don't want to judge Lee's order was immediately sent

to the Court of Appeals which rolled Judge Lee had

no authority to order that money be spent

The case is headed to the state Supreme Court and

how the court rules may depend on who is in

charge right now

It's a 4 to 3 Democratic led bench but two

seats are on the ballot in 2022

If one Republican is elected it becomes a Republican led

state Supreme Court

If the constitution says that the state needs to provide

a sound basic education for students and everyone agrees that

that is not happening for all students who is supposed

to force the state to do that duty

Well the people in voting if the people are looking

at that and have decided that the legislature is not

doing an appropriate job in connection with that we have

an election every two years

I think the last thing we want is an appointed

judge not elected appointed making those kinds of decisions where

there's really no oversight by the voters

We must and have to do better by students in

this state

And if you're not willing to do that you should

remove yourself from office

Like we have to think larger than all this is

too much or this judge shouldn't tell us what to

do

Coming up back to the schools still fighting to provide

that sound basic education watch this and many more award

winning documentaries anytime go to Wrl documentaries dot com or

stream it from any of these platforms

Mm hmm

Back in the Halifax County school district

The work continues

Why did you let us go into two of your

schools Well because I wanted you to see for yourself

what we're doing in spite of and how we are

committed to being with the Children

No matter how strong the waves are dr eric Cunningham

knows the district has a rocky past in 2000 and

nine

Judge manning called what was happening there quote academic genocide

because of low test scores on statewide tests

The district is no longer on the state's list of

low performing schools but Cunningham worries they've gone as far

as they can with the money they have

There are people who adamantly believe you can still do

great things without money

That this is not about funding

Like what do you say to that Everything boils down

to money

You get what you pay for and what we just

want people to see is that we can do even

more with just a little bit more

Yeah just a little bit more

We're so close

Please do not portray us as a destitute school a

school system because we're not the district has allowed us

to to bring in to maintain wonderful teachers on this

campus

We have a principal who cares

The only thing we don't have On the resources that

other more affluent school systems have

I don't particularly care that this plan that they're talking

about cost $5 billion

I care that they've actually for the first time sat

down and come up with a plan that's going to

cost something and I'm hopeful that everybody will sort of

say we need to do something big if it goes

to the Supreme Court and they say no you have

to fund this you have to find Leandro what will

you do Well we'll have to see if that happens

Leandro his opportunity for all students to be successful because

it will open doors that we can't open right now

You have to have adequate resources in order for doors

to open and lee Andrew will allow us to do

so right Yeah