Opinion

Editorial: With agreement on facts, now implement solutions to bring quality education to all

Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020 -- Superior Court Judge David Lee will have the opportunity to determine if North Carolina is moving properly in the agreed-upon direction. Then the General Assembly will need to pass the laws to fulfill the order. All North Carolinians will be able to watch and see if their legislators provide the means to be sure every child gets access to the quality education our State Constitution is supposed to guarantee.

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Leandro report
CBC Editorial: Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020; Editorial #8503
The following is the opinion of Capitol Broadcasting Company.

It is a very significant and laudatory accomplishment that state Superior Court Judge David Lee was able to forge a consensus from the contentious adversaries who have been arguing over North Carolina’s state constitutional right that every child have the opportunity for a quality education in a public school.

It is evident in the order the judge issued this week amid the continuing legal wrangling over how the state will meet its Leandro obligation.

The plaintiffs (low wealth school districts, their parents and students) and the defendants (the state and its Board of Education) reached a consensus on the facts, what needs to be done, a schedule to get it accomplished and ways to measure achievement.

Most significantly, Judge Lee’s order holds accountable the defendants, Gov. Roy Cooper, the state Board of Education along with the General Assembly, which will need to provide much of the implementing legislation.

It has been a quarter-century since North Carolina declared that, as the judge put it, “every child in North Carolina have the opportunity to receive a sound basic education in a public school.”

The 34-page order, concise for the sweeping issues it covers, notes agreement on critical and fundamental facts:

  • The state has failed to meet the right the state Constitution guarantees its children.
  • It is the state’s duty to do this and it has the assets to accomplish it.
  • The state’s support for public education “has not kept pace with the growth and needs of the preK-12 student body.”
  • The state does not “provide adequate resources and funding” to ensure that all students have the opportunity to receive a sound basic education.
  • Teachers and school administrators do not have the classroom resources they need and are not paid competitive salaries.
  • Resources and investments have been wanting to assure quality teachers in every classroom.
  • Access to critical pre-K and early childhood education remains out of reach for too many children.

No longer are these issues up for debate.

The order outlines in seven clear – and now indisputable -- points what needs to be done. It also provides a series of deadlines for the state to demonstrate compliance. The first will be two months from now.

That will be a month before the opening of the General Assembly’s “short” session.

Judge Lee will have the opportunity to determine if the state is moving properly in the agreed-upon direction. Then the General Assembly will need to pass the laws to fulfill the order.

And all North Carolinians will be able to watch to see if their legislators provide the means to be sure every child gets access to the quality education our State Constitution is supposed to guarantee.

Judge Lee’s order is available HERE. Below are highlights.

“The state defendants have not yet ensured the provision of education that meets the required constitutional standard to all children in North Carolina.” (P. 3)

“It is the State’s duty to implement the fiscal, programmatic and strategic steps necessary.” (P. 5)

“North Carolina has substantial assets to draw upon to develop a successful PreK-12 education system that need the Leandro tenets.” (P. 13)

“Resources committed to education decreased in the Great Recession and some valuable programs were discontinued. … Promising initiatives, along with many other statewide, regional, district, community and school efforts were in place. Many of these efforts, however, were neither sustained or scaled up to make a sustained impact.” (P. 14)

“State funding for education has not kept pace with the growth and needs of the preK-12 student body. The state does not currently provide adequate resources to ensure all students have the opportunity to obtain a sound basic education as well as to meet higher standards and become college-and-career ready.” (p. 17)

“North Carolina does not presently provide adequate resources and funding to ensure that all students, especially those at-risk, have the opportunity to receive a sound basic education. There is inadequate funding to meet student needs, especially among economically-disadvantaged students and students in high-poverty schools.” (p. 22)

“North Carolina can never succeed in providing the opportunity for a sound basic education to all children without vastly improving systems and approaches for recruiting, preparing, supporting, developing and retaining teachers.” (P. 18)

“The total number of teachers employed in North Carolina has decreased by 5% from 2009 to 2018 even as student enrollment has increased.” (P. 18)

“North Carolina lags behind numerous other states in average teacher pay and is not paying salaries at a competitive level.” (P. 19)

“The proportion of teachers in North Carolina who are not fully licensed has doubled since 2011.” (P. 19)

“There is an inequitable distribution of qualified teachers in North Carolina public schools.” (P. 20)

“In order to improve the quality of the teaching workforce, North Carolina must implement wide-scale infrastructure for professional learning at State, district, and school levels.” (P. 21)

“Principals of high-poverty schools, on average, do not have the longevity in their schools necessary to make sustainable changes.” (P. 22)

“Educating today’s students to meet high standards and to me successful in this century requires new investments in, among other things, infrastructure, instructional tools, technology and the educator workforce.” (P. 22)

“Lack of spending flexibility at the district level is an obstacle to aligning funding with student needs. … Recent legislated restrictions on the transfer of funds from classroom teacher allotment presented a particular significant challenge, reducing districts’ funding flexibility, creating inequities and reducing some districts’ overall funding.” (P. 24)

“Policies related to charter schools and opportunity scholarships contribute to the effects of cumulative disadvantage in high-poverty schools because these policies attract more -advantaged students and fewer students with disabilities to charter schools than those left behind.” (P. 27)

“Access to early-childhood education programs remains out of reach for many low-income families. …There are funding barriers to the expansion of high-quality early childhood education that need to be addressed. The overriding, systemic barriers to expanding N.C. Pre-K is that revenue and other resources available to NC Pre-K providers are too often inadequate to cover the costs of expansion.” (P. 30)

“The time has come for the State Defendants to work expeditiously and without delay to take all necessary actions to create and fully implement the following:

1.    “A system of teacher development and recruitment that ensures each classroom is staffed with a high-quality teacher who is supported with early and ongoing professional learning and provided competitive pay;
2.    “A system of principal development and recruitment that ensures each school is led by a high-quality principal who is supported with early and ongoing professional learning and provided competitive pay;
3.    “A finance system that provides adequate, equitable, and predictable funding to school districts and, importantly, adequate resources to address the needs of all North Carolina schools and students, especially at-risk-students as defined by the Leandro decisions;
4.    “An assessment and accountability system that reliably assess multiple measures of student performance against the Leandro standard and provides accountability consistent with the Leandro standard;
5.    “An assistance and turnaround function that provides necessary support to low-performing schools and districts;
6.    “A system of early education that provides access to high-quality pre-kindergarten and other early childhood learning opportunities to ensure that all students at-risk of educational failure, regardless of where they live in the State, enter kindergarten on track for school success; and

7.    “An alignment of high school to postsecondary and career expectations, as well as the provision of early postsecondary and workforce learning opportunities, to ensure student readiness to all students in the state.” (P. 33)​​​

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