Education for All

Is education a fundamental right found in our constitution? This question has been posed and debated for many years. In this case, the state of Euphoria is currently funding the local public K-12 schools by the local property taxes. Apple school district, a poor district in the state of Euphoria, receives 2,000 dollars per pupil less than other, wealthier, districts in the state. This difference in unequal funding is showed with the class selection that students can choose from. For example, Apple school district only has three advance placement classes while other, wealthier, districts have more than twenty advance placement classes. The lack of advance placement classes makes it difficult for students, in Apple school district to get into more selected colleges. I believe that education is an implied fundamental right found in our constitution, because without education you simply can not survive in our demanding society.

Education is the key to success in our society. A person can not survive without being properly educated. The more educated a person is the more open doors of countless opportunities. A person who does not receive a quality education can not have the same open doors. As you can tell, it can be very difficult for them to support themselves with the lack of jobs that they can choose based on their poor education. This is why; I believe a properly funded education is vital for everyone to have in the workforce. One of the areas that a state focuses their budget on is education. This was first stated in Brown v Board of Education. In the 1950s, many schools would not allow students to go to their school based on their color. In Brown case, the Court ruled to allow to all student to attend any school regardless of their color. In the Court opinion, it stated education is extremely essential to have in our society. The Court also added that states do spend tons of money to put back their education system. I believe the Court called education a fundamental right. Also, I like to add that, there are several laws that require a child to go to school. If education is not significant to be called a fundamental right than why do we have laws that are in favor education? Why does our society focus so much time and energy on education? I tell you why, because it is necessary in our society to be well educated. There are laws that allow all children to go to school to receive an education. The lawmakers believe the children have a right to go to school. Education is so valuable to have in our society; this is why, I believe, it should be called a fundamental right.

In this case, I look at it from a legal realism viewpoint. Legal realism is a strong emphasis on the facts in the case. Judges need to incorporate the social, political, and economic, which are found in a case (Miksch, 2004). In this case, let?s look at the facts. The numbers do not lie to us. It safe to say, the more funding gives you better teachers and classes. If a school is not funded well than there are less likely to have quality teachers and classes. We need to take a deeper look into this case to see, that these children are being denied their fundamental right to a properly funded education. They are being discriminative based in their class that they were born into. I believe, without a proper education, these children are going to continue a terrible cycle for the next generation. We need to stop this cycle and give these children a better education. A properly education gives these children a brighter future to look forward to. We need to call for schools that are well funded for all. These children deserve to have better education than what they are getting now.

Well, I know is there are some people that did not see the same viewpoint as me. The Court believes education not a fundamental right. They made this ruling in 1973, in the case San Antonio School District v. Rodriguez. In the case, a group of concerned parents sued the San Antonio because they wanted to pay more local taxes so their children could receive a proper education. San Antonio denied them this wish. The San Antonio schools were having the same funding problems like the state of Euphoria. The Court decided that education was not a fundamental right. They felt that is was not written or implied in our constitution. They felt the state of Texas could decide how to fund their public school. The Court encouraged them to try to make the funding fair, but they did not set laws to make it happen. The state of Texas did not follow the Court?s opinion and still have an unequal funding gap thirty-one years later.

In the Rodriguez case, it stated that education was not an implied fundamental right found in our constitution. This was ruled in 1973, but a lot has changed in thirty-one years in terms of the value of education. In 1973, you can survive without a properly funded education. Today, in the year 2004, our society is more demanding and competitive than ever before. This competitive is showed through jobs and colleges in our society. Colleges are more selected than ever before. There are many jobs that require a person to have a properly funded education. Years did not change this value in our society but only made it more essential to have.

I know that if the Supreme Court revisits this case, they would overturn the Rodriguez case. There was not been much change in term of the unequal funding in school. There are thirty-six states in the United of America that still have funding gap. This not a small unequal funding gap. The average gap is $1300 per pupil difference. Remember this is just the average; there are some schools that have a larger funding gap (Miksch, 2004). There are only fourteen states that did not have this problem. The reason that these states did not experience the same problem is because the school is mostly funded by the state and not by the local property taxes (Miksch, 2004). The Court has overturned some of the precedent in its history before in order to gives same rights to all. For example, in the Gideon v Wainwright the court had to decide to apply the right to counsel as a fundamental right in order to get a right to a fair trial. The Court overturned the Betts rule, to make the right of counsel an implied fundamental right. I know, the Court would overrule the precedent to include education as an implied fundamental right. They would see that people are being denied their rights. I believe, everyone should have the right to well funded education.

In conclusion, I believe that education is fundamental right. To survive in our challenging world, a person needs to be well educated. Education is so vital that there are laws to ensure that every child gets an opportunity to receive an education. This is a good start, but we are not finished with this issue. We need to ensure that everyone get a chance to go to a well funded school. We need to let these children decide their future by giving a proper education to them.