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All children in North Carolina deserve access to a high-quality education, regardless of whether they are from wealthy or poor families. Thirty years after the landmark Leandro court decision requiring lawmakers to spend more on education and share funding more fairly across our state’s schools, the state is even farther away from meeting its constitutional duty to provide our kids with the opportunity to receive a sound basic education

We’re spending less and less on our kids’ education. When adjusting for school inflation, per-student state funding is down 3.8% from 2008-2009.
We’re spending less on our teachers. In 2008-2009, North Carolina’s average teacher salary was 11% below the U.S. average. Now, the average teacher’s pay is 19% below the national average.
We’re falling behind. In 2008-2009 national average per-pupil spending was 18% higher than per-pupil spending in North Carolina; now, it’s 24% higher.
North Carolina’s school funding (total education spending as a share of the state economy) has fallen from 42nd in 2008 to 50th in 2022.
If North Carolina had increased its funding effort to the national average, FY 2021-22 spending would have been $6.8 billion (46%) above actual levels.
The only education program with automatic funding increases are private school vouchers that fund the private school sector. Funding for private school vouchers is already slated to increase 78% over the next nine years.
The median North Carolina household with a child in private school earns nearly double the typical North Carolina household.

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