Leandro Case

Lee oversaw litigation called “Leandro.” Another judge took over the case this year, a few months after Lee directed $1.75 billion in state coffers go to fund a remedial plan to help at-risk children.

WUNC education reporter Liz Schlemmer speaks with two legal experts who have followed the Leandro case since it started in 1994.

North Carolina’s highest court returned Wednesday to an education funding case originating almost 30 years ago, hearing arguments over whether a judge had unilateral power to allocate hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars to address unresolved student inequities.

The landmark Leandro case is headed to the North Carolina Supreme Court for the fourth time in its 28 year history. Advocates rallied at the statehouse Saturday to call for the state to spend $6.8 billion to improve public education.

Early voting for the mid-term primary began across the state this week. Meanwhile, Congressman Madison Cawthorn brought a loaded gun to Charlotte Douglass International airport, and a new judge in the decades old Leandro public education case offered something of a split decision. In our weekly review, Mitch Kokai of the John Locke Foundation and Rob Schofield from NC Policy Watch discuss some of the recent political happenings.

Part of the ruling is a setback for school districts and parents of students who are plaintiffs in decades-long litigation over school funding.

Special Superior Court Judge Michael Robinson was tasked last month with scrutinizing the November order of another judge who had directed that $1.75 billion be moved from state coffers to carry out two years of a remedial plan to address education inequities.

The North Carolina Supreme Court has asked Judge Michael Robinson to decide how the recent state budget affects a prior court ruling that ordered the state to set aside $1.7 billion for a plan to improve inequities in public schools.

Judge Michael Robinson has been charged with deciding what effect the recent state budget has on another judge's prior order that the state should provide significantly more funding for public education.

Superior Court Judge David Lee has been overseeing the lawsuit called “Leandro” since late 2016. But this week state Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby instead assigned special Superior Court Judge Mike Robinson to evaluate school spending in a new state budget law in light of Lee's November order directing $1.75 billion be moved from state coffers to government agencies.