Jonah Patel
The United States Constitution and its amendments do not specifically mention education, and there is currently no federally protected constitutional right to education. However, the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment has been applied to educational issues, influencing landmark cases such as Brown v. Board of Education, which laid the foundation for dismantling racial segregation in schools. While the Supreme Court has ruled that education is not a fundamental right, some lower courts have recognized a right to a basic minimum education under the 14th Amendment, potentially paving the way for future changes in the federal role in education.
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What You'll Learn
The Fourteenth Amendment and public education for undocumented immigrant children
The Fourteenth Amendment states that:
> "[n]o State shall ... deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
The Fourteenth Amendment's protection extends to anyone, citizen or not, who is subject to the laws of a state. In the case of Plyler v. Doe in 1982, the Supreme Court ruled that a Texas statute that withheld state funds for the education of undocumented children and allowed local school districts to deny these children enrollment violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court stated that while education was not a fundamental right under the U.S. Constitution, states could not "deny a discrete group of innocent children the free public education that it offers to other children residing within its borders" unless doing so furthered some substantial state interest.
The Plyler v. Doe decision held that schools must extend the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to undocumented children, and that public schools could not request citizenship documentation of students nor deprive them of an education. This decision has been challenged by some state legislators and school districts, who have attempted to deny enrollment to students or collect citizenship status information.
Despite the Fourteenth Amendment's protection of the right to public education for undocumented children, it is important to note that education itself is not a fundamental right under the U.S. Constitution. The establishment of education is a power reserved for the states under the Tenth Amendment. While the Fourteenth Amendment has been interpreted to protect against discrimination in public education, such as in the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education, which ruled that segregated public schools were unconstitutional, the amendment does not guarantee a right to education.
In recent years, there have been court cases, such as Gary B. v. Snyder, that have once again raised the question of whether education is a constitutional right protected under the Fourteenth Amendment. While the answer is currently still no, there is a potential for change in the future, especially in the post-COVID-19 era, with lawsuits expected if there is a lingering financial burden on states and localities, which primarily fund public education.
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The Brown v. Board of Education case
The case combined five cases: Brown itself, Briggs v. Elliott (filed in South Carolina), Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County (filed in Virginia), Gebhart v. Belton (filed in Delaware), and Bolling v. Sharpe (filed in Washington, D.C.). All were sponsored by the NAACP. The Davis case was the only one of the five that originated from a student protest, led by 16-year-old Barbara Rose Johns.
The Supreme Court ruled that the segregation of white and "Negro" children in public schools on the basis of race, pursuant to state laws, denied "Negro" children the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. This decision overruled the Court's previous ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson, which had established the "separate but equal" doctrine. The Brown v. Board of Education decision stated that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal" and laid the foundation for dismantling racial segregation in schools.
The decision in Brown v. Board of Education was unanimous, and it was a major victory for the civil rights movement. It helped establish the precedent that "separate-but-equal" education and other services were not, in fact, equal. The ruling had a significant impact on race relations and stimulated activism among African-American parents, leading to successful lawsuits against segregation. The case also influenced other types of equal protection claims and landmark education cases, such as Plyler v. Doe, where the Supreme Court ruled that denying education to children not legally admitted to the US violated the Equal Protection Clause.
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The Tenth Amendment and state control of education
The Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states that "the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." This amendment has been interpreted to mean that the federal government can only exercise powers granted by the Constitution, while states or individuals retain control over matters not delegated to the federal government. This includes the power to govern education, allowing states to set their policies and regulations.
Historically, the Tenth Amendment prevailed over the Fourteenth Amendment in terms of federal involvement in K-12 education, with most national legislation focusing on higher education. However, this changed in 1965 with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which provided federal grants to enhance elementary and secondary education. The ESEA worked around the Tenth Amendment by offering federal funds to states while also threatening their withdrawal if certain conditions were not met. This marked a shift in the relationship between the federal government and the states on education policy.
The Tenth Amendment allows for state autonomy and self-governance in education. While the federal government passes education-related laws and provides financial support, it is the states that create statutes and rules, and local education agencies that develop policies to enforce these laws and regulations. This collaborative effort aims to ensure that all students have access to a quality education and are provided with equal educational opportunities.
It is worth noting that while the Tenth Amendment reserves the power to govern education to the states, the Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause requires all states to provide "equal protection of the laws" to any person within their jurisdiction. This has been applied to educational issues, most notably in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case, which laid the foundation for dismantling racial segregation in schools. The Supreme Court ruled that separate educational facilities for black and white students were inherently unequal and violated the Fourteenth Amendment.
In summary, the Tenth Amendment grants states the power to govern education and set their policies, while the Fourteenth Amendment ensures that all individuals receive equal protection under the law, including in the realm of public education. The federal government's role in education has evolved over time, with the ESEA and other initiatives increasing federal involvement and working to ensure equal access to quality education for all students.
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The Sixth Circuit Court's ruling on a basic minimum education
In April 2020, a three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that students in Detroit had a federal constitutional right to a basic minimum public education. The ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed by students from five of the city's lowest-performing public schools against Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. The students alleged that poor conditions within the classroom, including incompetent teachers, decrepit facilities, and scarce materials, deprived them of a basic minimum education, preventing them from gaining essential literacy skills and accessing other fundamental rights.
The Sixth Circuit panel's 2-1 decision held that the Constitution provides a fundamental right to a basic minimum education. Judge Eric Clay, joined by Judge Jane Stranch, agreed with the students' due process claim, stating that access to literacy is guaranteed by the Constitution as it is a "prerequisite to the exercise of political power." Clay also addressed the nation's history of racism and the use of education to marginalize certain groups, emphasizing the essential role of literacy in exercising other fundamental rights.
However, the ruling was not without dissent. Judge Eric Murphy dissented, arguing that federal judges do not have the power to oversee Detroit's schools and that establishing a new constitutional right to a minimum education would interfere with the separation of powers. The full Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals later decided to rehear the case, and the previous ruling was set aside.
The Sixth Circuit's ruling in Gary B. v. Whitmer briefly established a precedent for a constitutional right to education, countering the 1973 Supreme Court ruling in San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez. However, the full court's decision to rehear the case and the ongoing debate around educational policy and federal versus state authority highlight the complexity of the issue.
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The Supreme Court's ruling on equal protection in Plyler v. Doe
In 1975, the Texas Legislature revised its education laws to deny enrollment in their public schools to and withhold any state funds for the education of children who were not "legally admitted" to the United States. The law allowed local school districts to deny enrollment to such students.
In the case of Plyler v. Doe, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in a 5-4 decision that the Texas statute violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court held that the Equal Protection Clause applies to all persons within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, irrespective of their immigration status. The Court emphasized that illegal aliens are "persons" in any ordinary sense of the term and thus protected from discrimination under the Equal Protection Clause.
The Court rejected the state's argument that undocumented children were appropriately excluded because they made it more difficult to provide a "high-quality education." The Court reasoned that barring these children from schools would not necessarily improve the quality of education. The Court also dismissed the state's assertion that undocumented children were more likely to leave Texas and that their education would benefit another state or country.
The Court concluded that any state restriction imposed on the rights afforded to children based on their immigration status must be examined under a rational basis standard to determine if it serves a substantial government interest. The majority opinion, written by Justice Brennan, stated that Texas could not justify denying a free public education to undocumented children when it provided the same to children lawfully present in the country.
The four dissenting justices agreed that it would be wrong to create a segment of illiterate persons but disagreed with the majority's interpretation of the Equal Protection Clause, arguing that it did not mandate identical treatment for different categories of persons. Chief Justice Burger asserted that the issue should be left to Congress rather than the judiciary.
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Frequently asked questions
No, the US Constitution does not explicitly guarantee the right to public education. The Tenth Amendment reserves the establishment of education for states to provide and regulate.
The Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause has been interpreted by courts to require that when a state establishes a public school system, no child living in that state may be denied equal access to schooling. This has been used to argue for the desegregation of schools and the provision of education to undocumented immigrant children.
In 2020, a federal appeals court recognised a fundamental right to a "basic minimum education" under the Fourteenth Amendment. However, this was only briefly binding law and the court declined to specify what amount or kind of education this right guarantees.
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