School board elections in Haywood, Jackson, Macon, and Swain counties — The Smoky Mountain News coverage area — have brought forth 14 General Election candidates to see who spends the next four years in office. Winners will serve their districts during a time when state public school allocations, already declining, could be even further in jeopardy.
North Carolina generally allocates around 60% of total district operational costs through its general fund, a percentage far higher than most other states, which do not share its top-down, centralized funding system. To that end, the state Supreme Court in 1997 ruled that every child in North Carolina has the constitutional right to a “sound, basic” education and that the state must provide it. That case, Leandro v. State of North Carolina, remains one of the largest policy issues facing the public education system. The fifth and most recent Leandro state Supreme Court ruling in April 2026 essentially ended the court’s enforcement of this duty by nullifying a previous order mandating the General Assembly send $1.75 billion to fulfill it. An Albert Shanker Institute study using 2022-2023 data ranked the state dead last nationwide in school funding equity and adequacy, for which many cite a convoluted, unequal funding formula.
