Education Matters

In 1997, the NC Supreme Court held unanimously in the landmark Leandro case that North Carolina public school students are entitled under the state constitution to the “opportunity to receive a sound basic education” and therefore the state’s responsibility to provide it. In November 2017, more than 20 years after the initial ruling, Governor Roy Cooper formed the Governor’s Commission on Access to Sound Basic Education in the latest and perhaps most ambitious effort to date to ensure that the state meets its constitutional obligation when it comes to public education. Guests: • Brad Wilson, Chair, Governor’s Commission on Access to Sound Basic Education • Melody Chalmers, Principal, E.E. Smith High School, Fayetteville • Melanie Dubis, Partner, Parker Poe • Debra Dowless, Assistant Superintendent, Hoke County Schools