Activist groups supporting progressive education policies will protest Leandro rehearing
Every Child NC and Pastors for NC Children have teamed up again.
The NC Supreme Court's discretionary hearing of the Leandro education funding case will be seeing protesters.
Specifically, progressive advocacy groups like Pastors for NC Children (PNCC), which is promoting a protest set up by Every Child NC (ECNC) called "Day of Action for Education Rights."
The event description says they are protesting to "condemn" the rehearing of the case and demand full funding of the WestEd-produced Leandro Comprehensive Plan.
For those who aren't familiar with that Plan, it called for $8.29 billion in new state-level spending. That ridiculous figure was never going to happen and the current dollar figure on the table is $677.8 million. Folks can catch up here and here on the Leandro case history, current events, and related documents.
The event will include a "lunch and learn," a Black History teach-in, and a march on the General Assembly.
Protesters can even be bused there and there is an offer of "partner support funding," per the event's RSVP.
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ECNC and PNCC both use religion to “mobilize the faith community” in order to “support public schools.”
For those who might recall the days of “Moral Monday” protests, these groups are similar but are focused just on education - at least for now.
PNNC was formed during the pandemic in 2020 and has affiliates in half a dozen other red states including FL, KY, MS, OK, TN, and TX.
By supporting public schools and the 1.5 million NC children they serve, we are living out our call from Christ Jesus to “Love our Neighbors” and “the least of these.” Together we are serving as the hands and feet of Christ in North Carolina and putting our prayers into action. - Excerpt from a PNNC email inviting the public to “train” as education activists.
Both groups were also involved in the “prayer vigil” in front of the N.C. Supreme Court on the day the Leandro case’s oral arguments began in 2022.