Local public school superintendents are trying to determine just how last week’s state Supreme Court ruling striking down a case that helped fund poorer school systems, like those in Sampson, will impact students. Both called the news sad and disturbing.
Last Thursday, April 2, the N.C. Supreme Court ended the 30-year-old Leandro case, reversing a previous decision, which ordered the state General Assembly to transfer $1.75 billion to improve public education statewide, especially for low-wealth and rural counties.
That appropriation authority will now rest in the hands of the N.C. General Assembly.
The plan was named the Leandro Plan after a 1994 court case in which students and families from Hoke, Halifax, Robeson, Vance and Cumberland county school districts filed a lawsuit against the state, arguing that legislators were not meeting the promise in the state’s constitution to provide every child with an adequate public education.
Since 1994, the case has been heard numerous times. However, in 2021, the NC Supreme Court ruled to approve the Leandro Plan, which intended to fix areas of concern by providing funds to various areas in the North Carolina public school system such as special education, teacher pay, counselors, social workers and school nurses.
The reversal of the Leandro case, by a 4-3 ruling, is with prejudice, meaning the case is permanently closed and cannot be filed again.
Sampson County Schools
Upon hearing of the ruling on Thursday afternoon, Sampson County Schools Superintendent Dr. Jamie King called the decision “extremely devastating.”
“Once again, the state of North Carolina has failed to fund public schools adequately,” he stressed. “At some point, the state really needs to make public schools a priority, because every child, no matter where they live, is entitled to a quality education.”
Additionally, Dr. King said that only time will tell how the court’s ruling will affect students in the local area.
“I don’t think we know yet how this will affect us in the long run,” said King. “Right now, we’re still trying to go through the court’s ruling to really understand all the findings. It’s another sad day for students in North Carolina public schools. I think it’s going to take some time before we have the information on how it will affect us.”
Clinton City Schools
Clinton City Schools Superintendent Dr. Wesley Johnson said the news on Leandro was “hard to hear.”
Although he said he didn’t know what the specific impact to Clinton City Schools would be, the ruling on Leandro would have an impact across the state, particularly in some counties.
”There’s definitely disparities between the richest counties in North Carolina and being able to generate local funding, compared to the more rural counties that don’t have those same caveats to be able to generate that funding,” Johnson said. “It’s required that the state provide a free and appropriate public education to all students. It’s just thinking about the education that can be provided in certain areas of the state is not equal.”
Public schools receive funding from the federal government and local governments, in addition to the state, he pointed out. “We’ve not had a state budget this year, and with my understanding we’re the only state in the country that does not have state funding. So the way that we were funded as a district was with the same funding model that was in place in 2024-25. Lots of increases have occurred since then. So, of course, if we’re funded on the same methods that we were in 2024-25, we are definitely losing money. That’s concerning when you see more funding that is being funneled into opportunity scholarships across the state.”
Johnson said he and his staff are in the middle of trying to figure out how to adequately fund school needs.
“We’re working with our county manager, Allen Vann, and we had a funding formula that was put in place last year, which has definitely assisted with local needs,” Johnson said. “There’s three buckets of funding that we get funds for: state funding, federal, and local. When you have less and less funding that is coming from the state and federal, then it kind of inundates and pushes the responsibility on more local funding. The counties that have the additional tax revenues to be able to pour more additional funds into local public education, those are the ‘winners,’ whereas the ‘losers’ are the counties that don’t have all this additional funding to put into public schools.”
Despite this, Johnson credited Vann, the Sampson County Board of Commissioners, and former interim manager Jeffery Hudson for helping Clinton Schools improve per pupil spending.
“(They) have done an excellent job to help us to improve a little bit,” he emphasized. “Last year I think we were somewhere in the 100s and there’s 115 school districts in North Carolina. I think Sampson County Schools was like 104. This funding formula that we put into place last year, we were able to get up into the 90s. There has been additional and significant improvements. When it comes to ability to fund and funding efforts, our ability to fund is in the top 10. That means our county commissioners are doing all that they can with the resources that we have. But again, we just don’t have the tax revenues as Orange County or Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Wake or some of these bigger counties with all the tax revenue.”
Johnson pointed to the fact that the increase of average daily membership for Clinton City Schools, along with the student population as benefactors for additional resources for the school district.
“Because our student population is going up, we’re getting additional resources, whereas other counties are losing students,” he said. “Losing students to private schools and charter schools, but for the last two years we’ve actually gotten additional revenues. (That’s) because our actual numbers are higher than our projected numbers. That just shows the confidence that our local community has in the education that they are receiving here in Clinton City and Sampson County.”