The Leandro case began in 1994 when five counties—Hoke, Halifax, Robeson, Vance, and Cumberland—along with families sued the state, arguing that their students were being denied equal educational opportunities because their districts lacked adequate resources despite taxing residents at comparatively high rates. Over 30 years later, the Leandro case has remained one of the biggest education policy issues in North Carolina and those five counties which were among the lowest funded in the state, remain toward the bottom of our rankings in terms of their ability to support public schools on a per pupil basis.
In 1997, the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled that every child in the state has a constitutional right to the opportunity for a “sound basic education,” a standard the Court later clarified in 2004 includes access to competent teachers, qualified principals, and sufficient educational resources.
Over the following decades, courts repeatedly found that North Carolina continued to fall short of meeting this constitutional obligation. In 2018, Judge David Lee ordered independent education consultant WestEd to evaluate the state’s public education system and recommend actions necessary to ensure compliance with the Leandro rulings. WestEd’s 2019 report identified systemic gaps in school funding, educator preparation and retention, school leadership, accountability systems, and student supports, ultimately leading to the creation of an eight-year Comprehensive Remedial Plan designed to guide investments needed to provide all students access to a sound basic education.
In 2021, Judge Lee ordered the state to begin implementing the Comprehensive Remedial Plan, including significant funding investments. After additional legal disputes and appeals, the North Carolina Supreme Court issued its fourth major Leandro ruling in November 2022. In that decision, the Court upheld the judiciary’s authority to enforce constitutional rights and allowed the transfer of approximately $1.75 billion in state funds to support implementation of the remedial plan. The ruling emphasized that, after decades of delay, the judiciary could no longer wait for the executive and legislative branches to fulfill their constitutional responsibilities to public school students.
However, in April 2026, the North Carolina Supreme Court issued its fifth ruling in the case, commonly referred to as “Leandro V.” In a 4-3 decision, the Court vacated the 2022 ruling and brought the litigation to an end, concluding that procedural issues invalidated the prior order directing the transfer of funds. The majority opinion focused on procedural and separation-of-powers concerns rather than revisiting the constitutional right itself. While the ruling eliminated the binding legal effect of the 2022 decision, it did not overturn the original constitutional principle established in the earlier Leandro rulings—that every child in North Carolina retains the right to the opportunity for a sound basic education.
The 2026 ruling also leaves unresolved broader questions about how North Carolina will meet its constitutional obligations moving forward. Legal experts note that while future constitutional claims related to educational opportunity remain possible, the Court’s latest decision may make such claims more difficult to pursue. At the same time, education advocates continue to point to persistent challenges across the state, including low national rankings in per-pupil funding, teacher shortages, inadequate student support staffing and growing pressure on local governments to compensate for insufficient state investment in public schools.The Public School Forum of North Carolina maintains that the Leandro V ruling does not change the state’s constitutional responsibility to fully fund public education or provide all students access to a sound basic education. Decades of underinvestment have harmed students and communities across North Carolina and the evidence-based recommendations outlined in the Comprehensive Remedial Plan remain necessary to ensure educational opportunity for all children in our state. School funding is not simply a political issue, but a constitutional obligation and we will continue to advocate for investments in educator pay, instructional resources, mental health supports and equitable funding systems to ensure that every child in North Carolina has access to a high-quality public education.