Abstract
The North Carolina (NC) General Assembly (GA) has not fully implemented the 1997 Leandro (Mitchell & Von Hoy, 2021) decision 26 years after the NC Supreme Court found the state guilty of failing to provide the Constitutionally required “sound basic education” or SBE. This stalled implementation has increased the disparities between high-poverty districts typically populated with students of color, according to Public Schools First NC (2022), providing impetus for this study. This study examined the various forms and uses of power apparent within the NC GA and a select group of advocates within the state. This study reveals instances of power over, power with, and power to within the GA, explaining the GA’s ability to ignore most of the NC Supreme Court’s 1997 verdict.