Legislative leaders say they do not have enough extra cash on hand to pay the $747.9 million a Wake County judge says must go to public schools.

Superior Court Judge Howard Manning Jr. has ordered the state to turn over civil fines that were illegally withheld from public schools for more than nine years, but he left it up to the General Assembly to decide where to come up with the money and when.

But legislators say that instead of coming up with new revenue, they will comply with Manning's order by tapping money already earmarked for K-12 schools.

"Everybody assumed from the beginning that it would come out of the state's education budget," State House Speaker Joe Hackney, a Chapel Hill Democrat, said Tuesday. "We really don't have $700 million in new money."

That means the legal win may be a pyrrhic victory. (N&O) 

A Wake County judge said Thursday that he will make the state give up as much as $768 million.

Superior Court Judge Howard Manning Jr. said that the state should give to schools most of the money collected from civil fines for almost a decade leading up to 2005.

That year, the state Supreme Court ruled that the money wasn't being given to public schools as required by state law and sent the case back to Manning to decide how much should be distributed.

Manning rejected most arguments aimed at limiting the payout.

Under stte law, the money must be used to pay for new technology. (N&O) 

Bob Orr said judges should not play a major role in education.

At a debate in Greensboro Tuesday, the former Supreme Court justice was asked about the ongoing Leandro case, in which Superior Court Judge Howard Manning has monitored several school districts' progress in providing more funding for at-risk students.

Orr said he thinks that the case is providing political cover for inaction.

"The Leandro case, I confess, is going on at a length of time that I have never seen in my 18 years in the judiciary," he said. "I think there's a certain cover developed for the executive and the legislature that have Judge Manning out there, and I don't think that's appropriate."

The proper role of the judiciary, he said, was to step in if there are violations of citizens' rights, and, if necessary, order the legislature or the governor to comply with the state constitution.

"The governor needs to be the person in charge of education," he said.

Related: Mark Binker wonders what Orr thinks are the roles of the state schools superintendent and the state board of education.