North Carolina's 1.5 million public school children depend on the state to pay the majority of their educational costs, but that long-held tradition may be changing.

What started as the state's promise during the Great Depression has eroded during the Great Recession. Lawmakers, facing gaping state budget shortfalls in the past two years, began to force cuts onto local school districts. That so-called discretionary reduction was $225 million two years ago and $305 million last year, both actions taken by a Democratic-led legislature.

Now the state's budget reduction has grown to $429 million for public schools and charter schools - with the Republican-led legislature cutting another $124 million. The cuts were contained in the budget that passed last week after a lengthy political fight over education spending with Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue. The GOP-controlled legislature overrode the governor's veto, and the $19.7 billion budget plan became law.

Forcing the counties to make cuts began as a stopgap measure by the legislature to deal with the economic crisis. But it has become a new way of doing business, and it's looking more like a fundamental shift in the way North Carolina pays for public schools. The reduction is projected to grow to about $500 million in 2012-13, at the same time the federal Education Jobs Fund runs out of money.

With less state money, the 2011-12 cutting is under way. Across North Carolina, school districts are issuing pink slips, appealing to county governments for more money and raiding rainy-day accounts to save jobs.

Smaller, poorer districts say they will be the hardest hit, while large, urban districts - those with a larger tax base - will be able to withstand the cuts better.

Meck anted up to saved jobs

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools officials announced last week that they will be able to avoid more than two-thirds of the 1,500 job cuts they have been planning for since early this year. They say they were able to do that because the state and county budgets ended up better than they expected.

Mecklenburg County commissioners have voted to give CMS $26 million more than last year, and the newly adopted state budget gives CMS a reduction of about $40 million - far less than the $70 million cut originally indicated and for which the schools had been bracing.

About 1,050 CMS educators, including prekindergarten teachers and elementary teacher assistants, will be spared layoffs in 2011-12. The Bright Beginnings pre-K program will continue to serve about 3,000 disadvantaged 4-year-olds, CMS officials said.

Perdue, during a recent visit to Charlotte, noted that wealthier counties like Mecklenburg will be able to withstand the state cuts, but poorer rural ones will suffer.

In two rural counties in the Charlotte region, school leaders have been looking to their county governments for help.

Officials in Cleveland County said they lost $8.7 million to state cuts, but will lose just 27 teaching positions out of roughly 1,300. Cleveland County Schools spokeswoman Donna Carpenter said that's largely because county officials didn't cut their support for schools, even though double-digit unemployment and declining population have cost the school system several hundred children in recent years.

In Lincoln County, officials had to give layoff notices to 190 teacher assistants and 38 teachers, said Candy Burgin, vice chair of the Lincoln County school board. A chart handed out by Perdue's office said Lincoln schools stood to lose more than $3 million under the Republican-authored budget plan.

The Lincoln County school board has a budget meeting today, and is still hoping county officials might supply extra help if needed.

"We're hoping that we can bring back everyone," she said.

State's responsibility

Since the Great Depression, the state has taken the lead in funding public education, accounting for 60 percent of total school spending in 2009-10, down from 64 percent in 2008-09. Local money is about one-quarter of the pie, and federal dollars make up the rest.

Now counties are having to take on a larger role in school finance. Senate leader Phil Berger said the change reflects the practical reality of the economic situation, rather than a philosophical shift about who should pay for schools.

The Eden Republican said it's safe to expect that the state will continue to provide the bulk of funding for K-12 education, but added: "We may of necessity have to rethink" funding levels.

"The trimming back decisions are best left to those folks who are closest to what the practical impacts will be in the classroom," Berger said.

Hearing this week

But a transfer of responsibility could exacerbate the issue of educational disparity between wealthy counties and poor counties - the subject of a long-running lawsuit against the state.

This week, a Wake County judge will hold a hearing in that case, known as Leandro, to consider whether the state budget violates North Carolina's constitutional mandate to provide all students access to a quality education, no matter where they live. If Judge Howard Manning Jr. determines that the budget is unconstitutional, he could give the legislature and the governor a specific time to remedy the situation.

The newly adopted budget spends $7.4 billion on public schools, a 5.8 percent cut. The decrease is closer to 10 percent when taking into account the local reduction. The Republicans did add money for 1,100 new teachers in early grades to reduce class size.

All told, the state Department of Public Instruction estimates nearly 9,300 school positions will disappear statewide.

A 2010 study by the Public School Forum of North Carolina showed a widening gap in spending. The state's 10 richest counties had seven times more taxable property value per child than the 10 poorest counties in 2008-09.

The top 10 counties spent an average of $2,654 per student to supplement state funding, compared to $598 per student in the bottom 10 counties.

The state does have special funds designated for low-wealth and small counties to help even out the disparity, and Berger said those funds will remain intact.

"We think that we've approached the budget with a recognition of that," he said.

Staff writers Eric Frazier (Charlotte Observer) and T. Keung Hui (Raleigh News & Observer) contributed.