User:Zelliott451/Leandro case

Leandro v. State of North Carolina also known simply as the Leandro case was a series of hearings that began in 1994 as five North Carolina school districts, as well as several individual parents of minors, challenged the fairness of the State's distribution of financing among its school districts based on what the North Carolina Constitution stated with regard to equal educational opportunities. The case began in the NC Court of Appeals, but after original denial of the plaintiffs' claims, was appealed to the NC Supreme Court where hearings continued until July 1997. Despite the courts verdict that the NC Constitution does not require substantially equal funding or educational advantages in all school districts, dispute continued through as recently as 2007.

Background
Many concerned parents of school children as well as school boards themselves in lower-income and more rural areas of the state were becoming aware of an increasing gap between the level of funding and equipment they were recieving compared to the school districts in more affluent areas of the state. As a result, the plaintiff districts (school systems of five low-income counties: Hoke County, Halifax County, Cumberland County, Vance County and Robeson County) filed suit against the State alleging that the children in these school districts were being deprived of their constitutional right to education. The plaintiffs identified inadequacies in facilities, technology, and salaries as some of the problems resulting in lower student achievement. The plaintiffs faulted the system of funding for creating an unequal and inadequate education in poor counties by relying on local property taxes to supplement State funding for necessary expenses.