On this episode of Legal Magnolias, hosts Maggie and Sonya talk with Jen Story, a longtime friend of Maggie's from law school and supervising attorney at Campbell Law School's Richardson Family Education Equity Clinic, about what North Carolina actually owes its kids in a classroom. Jen walks through why the state's constitution guarantees every child a "sound basic education," why a case testing that promise has been in court since the 1990s, and what happens when a legislature simply doesn't release the funding a court says it owes.

She also gets into some of the assumptions that turn out to be wrong: why moving a child with a disability into a "special" classroom can violate the law even when it's meant well, why suspending a struggling student often makes the underlying problem worse instead of better, and how one small rural county ended up with three school districts a few miles apart, each funded completely differently.

About the guest

Jen spent years representing students and families against the school districts failing them, first at Legal Aid's Right to Education Project and now at Campbell Law. It's a conversation about what it actually costs to make a constitutional right real, and why Jen — after decades in this fight — still calls herself hopeful.

Learn more about Jen Story and the Richardson Family Education Equity Clinic here.

Legal Magnolias is a podcast from Magnolia Legal in Durham, North Carolina — hosted by Sonya Linton and Maggie Davis. Follow the show on LinkedIn and Facebook. Learn more about the firm at magnolialegal.com.

Music by Tim Sheahan | Everyday Knife Fight | Chapel Hill, NC

Produced by Sara Hofman | McNeely Web Design | Raleigh, NC

Enjoying the podcast? Please leave us a review — it genuinely helps our audience find us.