Education

Leandro case judge says he won't count 'overfunded' parts of $1.75B NC education plan

Judge Michael Robinson is preparing to tell the North Carolina Supreme Court how much of the Leandro plan remains un-funded.
Posted 2022-04-22T22:35:25+00:00 - Updated 2022-04-25T23:55:10+00:00
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The new judge in the Leandro school funding lawsuit doesn't plan to include what could amount to nearly $200 million state lawmakers say they appropriated toward resolving the case.

Lawmakers have asked for credit for providing more than $1.1 billion toward the $1.75 billion cost of the so-called Leandro education plan this year and next year. Other state officials argue just under $1 billion was funded in the new state budget. Other items lawmakers funded weren't in the Leandro education plan, at least not during the two-year period the $1.75 billion order covers.

Judge Michael Robinson is deciding how to amend previous Leandro Judge W. David Lee's order to transfer $1.75 billion from untapped state funds to state agencies to carry out the plan.

The North Carolina Supreme Court will now hear arguments on the constitutionality of Lee's order to transfer the funds, but only after Robinson considers how the new state budget factors in.

"I’m not sure what I’m supposed ot do with an overfunding situation... Many things here are seriously underfunded," Robinson said Friday, during a brief teleconference hearing in the case.

Robinson called the hearing to resolve disagreements in court filings over how much of a few line items in the Leandro education plan were funded.

After asking questions about how flexible some of the funding is -- namely, whether items funded beyond what the plan called for can be used for anything underfunded -- Robinson said he plans only to note what the plan called for. That means he'll lay out what parts of it were funded in the budget and what parts were left out.

That would make a difference, if he chose to mostly keep Lee's order as its written and the Supreme Court upholds it. It would mean nearly $800 million remains not funded, versus nearly $600 million as lawmakers had argued.

Robinson said he was concerned about the math. None of the parties in the case dispute what in the plan isn't funded, a figure that nears $800 million. Even if lawmakers provided more funds than required for certain items, those excess funds aren't dedicated toward those underfunded items, Robinson noted. So they can't change the figure on what isn't funded.

Robinson said lawmakers do deserve recognition for the fact that they have appropriated billions of other dollars toward education, as they do each year.

Lawmakers have argued Robinson should throw out Lee's order entirely and have contended the state does not have the money available to transfer. Plaintiffs and the state, who are defendants, have argued Robinson should only amend the monetary amounts in Lee's order and that the state has the money in excess reserves.

Robinson's amended order is due to the Supreme Court by the end of Wednesday.

Here’s a simplified breakdown on what was funded and what wasn’t in the Leandro education plan, according to the State Office of Budget Management:

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    "name": "footable",
    "attrs": {
        "id": "20232948",
        "identifier": "state_bud_leandro_2123"
    },
    "children": null
}

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