For more than 25 years, North Carolina’s constitutional promise to provide every child the opportunity to receive a sound basic education has gone unfulfilled. This historic, bipartisan failure has hurt all students, but particularly students of color, students from families with low incomes, students with disabilities, English learners, and rural students, and other vulnerable groups such as LGBTQ students.
The constitution is clear: all students, regardless of their background, deserve schools that equip them with the tools to become flourishing adults. The time to deliver on that promise is now.
After 28 years of litigation, we know how to deliver the schools that students are owed. The Leandro Comprehensive Remedial Plan details the specific budget, policy, and programmatic changes necessary to meet the bare minimum of what’s required under our state constitution. The Leandro Plan is the product of several years of intense study from some of the nation’s top education experts and is informed by the on-ground expertise of North Carolina families and educators.
The time to implement this plan is now.
We, the undersigned organizations, call on state lawmakers to implement and sustain the Leandro Plan so that future generations of North Carolinian children have access to the education they are owed under our constitution.
