Give us the $730 million you owe us -- NC schools taking state leaders to court
North Carolina school districts are going back to court to try to enforce a 10-year old court decision ordering state leaders to turn over nearly $750 million that was improperly withheld from public schools.
In 2008, Wake County Superior Court Judge Howard Manning ordered the state to turn over $747.9 million in civil fines that should have been given to public schools over a nine-year period. With only $18 million provided so far, the N.C. School Boards Association and 20 school boards filed a new lawsuit Wednesday in Wake County Superior Court to get the state to meet its state constitutional obligation to provide the remaining $730 million.
“The plaintiffs did not want to file this lawsuit,” Rod Malone, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, said at a news conference Wednesday at George Watts Elementary School in Durham. “But after 10 years of unsuccessful attempts to collect on the judgment, or to reach an amicable settlement of the matter, the plaintiffs had no choice.”
Under the terms of the 2008 court order, the money can only be used for technology and would be split among all of the state’s school districts based on how many students they have. The Wake County and Charlotte-Mecklenburg school systems would each be entitled to around $70 million, and Durham would get $15 million.
Many schools around the state lack modern computers to help their students learn, according to Minnie Forte-Brown, president of the School Boards Association and a Durham school board member.
As an example, Forte-Brown pointed to how 20 of the 21 computers in the computer lab at Watts Elementary, where the news conference was held, are at least 10 years old — the same age as the school’s fifth-grade students.
“North Carolina public school students deserve the finest 21st Century education, an education that prepares them for the future by utilizing innovative, collaborative and learner-centered classrooms,” Forte-Brown said. “Unfortunately, that’s difficult to achieve when technology is generations behind.”
The primary defendants in the new lawsuit are the state agencies that owe the money, But representatives of the School Boards Association say they know that it will be up to the Republican-led General Assembly to find a way to come up with the money.
“The judgment was reached against Democrat lawmakers over a decade ago as they were slashing education spending by over $700 million in two years, furloughing teachers and cutting their pay, but since that time Republican leaders in the state General Assembly made schools their top priority by doubling K-12’s share of new state spending and increasing total public education appropriations by nearly $3 billion a year,” Joseph Kyzer, a spokesman for House Speaker Tim Moore, said in a written statement.
Senate leader Phil Berger’s office also shifted the blame on Democrats for not providing the money when they controlled the General Assembly. The court order came as the state was dealing with the economic impact of the Great Recession.
“We have not seen the filing yet and will need time to review it,” Bill D’Elia, a spokesman for Berger, said in a written statement. “But we agree that Democrats broke their promises to support public education when they were last in charge of the legislature — including by freezing teacher pay, furloughing teachers and looting public school funds to cover budget deficits created by their failed tax and spend policies — and that’s why voters rejected them in 2010.”
The State Constitution requires that money from fines levied by the state go to public schools. But it was unclear whether it only applied to criminal fines until 1996, when the state Supreme Court issued a ruling extending it to civil fines as well.
In 1997, state lawmakers created a fund to collect money from civil fines and forfeitures that would be turned over to schools for acquiring technology. But the state excluded penalties levied for not paying state taxes, fines paid by overweight trucks and parking tickets issued at state universities.
In 1998, the N.C. School Boards Association and several school boards, including Wake and Johnston counties, filed a lawsuit to get the fine money that had been excluded.
In 2005, the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of the school districts and sent the case back to a lower court to determine how much money from 1996 to 2005 was owed.
Manning issued his order in August 2008 and said that the $747.9 million had to be used for technology. Legislators turned over $18.1 million in 2009.
Leanne Winner, director of governmental relations for the School Boards Association, said they realized it would be difficult to get the money during the recession so they’ve been patiently working on ways to get the funding. But she noted that the economy has now improved, which would make it easier to provide the money.
One repayment option that has been suggested is to set up speed enforcement cameras around schools and work zones and to turn over the money from fines for speeding.
“We felt it was time for the General Assembly to come up essentially with a multi-year plan to pay this off,” Winner said. “We do not expect all this money in one year. We know that is not a reasonable expectation on the state.”
The new lawsuit is being filed because the 2008 order expires this month. The school boards are seeking to extend the order for another decade while they try to get the money.
Despite the new legal action, speakers at Wednesday’s news conference repeatedly said they’re willing to negotiate with the state to reach a settlement that works for all sides.
“We are certainly conscious of the budgetary restraints and are willing to try to work with them in any way that makes sense,” said Malone, an attorney for the firm of Tharrington Smith.
School Boards Association officials said they sent Berger and Moore a letter in March asking whether they’d be interested in discussing a settlement. They said they never got a response.
This story was originally published August 1, 2018 at 10:02 AM with the headline "Give us the $730 million you owe us -- NC schools taking state leaders to court."