Charlotte Observer, MSNBC----
Superior Court Judge Robert Hobgood threw North Carolina's Public Schools governance further into disarray Friday when he ruled that Gov. Bev Perdue and the State Board of Education cannot transfer authority for running public schools from the elected Superintendent of Public Instruction to a new schools chief answerable to the board. That arrangement, he said, is unconstitutional.
Hobgood's ruling, which the state will appeal, has several implications for a public school system beset by performance problems, funding challenges and a continuing public policy debate over who's in charge:
It means Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson, elected twice to the job, is in charge of the day-to-day running of schools and carrying out policy adopted by the State Board of Education. Her authority is to be restored immediately.
It also means that repeated attempts in the legislative and executive branches of government to make the governor more responsible for school performance have been ineffective, not to mention unconstitutional. If the legislature wants to make the schools chief an appointive position rather than elective, it will have to do so by approving a constitutional amendment that the state's voters must also approve in a statewide referendum.
It's a setback for Perdue, who in January named Cumberland County Schools Superintendent Bill Harrison to the State Board of Education and asked the board to give him a new position of chief executive officer with authority to run schools on a daily basis. Atkinson – who appeared on the podium the day Perdue made her announcement, would be an “ambassador” to the state's schools.
Perdue said she did not want to pursue such a change legislatively because it might take more than a year to accomplish, if not longer. But Hobgood's ruling on a lawsuit filed on Atkinson's behalf by the N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law means this question is every bit as unsettled as it has been for decades. When current U.S. Rep. Bobby Etheridge was superintendent of public instruction in the early 1990s, he also filed a lawsuit questioning the ability of the executive branch to transfer schools authority away from his office, but that suit was dismissed.
The Hobgood ruling also puts into play a more curious administrative structure. Prior to Friday, Atkinson had authority over four persons at the state education department while Harrison was in charge of hundreds. Now Harrison, whose $265,000 salary is more than double Atkinson's $123,200, reports to Atkinson.
The NC General Assembly is largely responsible for the confusion about who runs the state's schools. On several occasions the Senate passed a constitutional amendment asking voters if they wish to make the post appointive, but the House disagreed. Now, late in a difficult session, lawmakers must fix a faulty governance system they created – or condone a flawed system where the governor has little authority or responsibility for school performance. They should go for the fix.
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Sources: Charlotte Observer, MSNBC, Wikipedia, Wake.mync.com, Google Maps
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