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Home > Legal Topics > Is There a Legal Right to an Education? Is There a Legal Right to Literacy? |
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Is There a Legal Right to an Education? by Peter W.D. Wright, Esq. and Pamela Darr Wright, MA, MSW Pete was interviewed for over an hour recently by a reporter from an NPR station. The questions involved a legal right to an education and a legal right to literacy.
In Brown v. Bd of Education 347 U. S. 483 (1954), a unanimous Supreme Court recognized that: "education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments."
Since 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to recognize education as a fundamental right each time it has been asked to do so. San Antonio Indep. Sch. Dist. v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 1 (1973)) In San Antonio, the Supreme Court considered this question: "Whether education is a fundamental right, in the sense that it is among the rights and liberties protected by the Constitution . . ." and concluded:
Citing their earlier decision in Shapiro v. Thompson, 394 U.S. 618, the Supreme Court held:
The U.S. Code does not contain a right to an education . . . with one exception. The exception is that a "child with a disability," as defined in 20 USC 1401(3), is entitled to a "Free Appropriate Public Education" (FAPE) pursuant to an Individualized Education Program (IEP). There is a requirement for FAPE in Section 504 but it relates to meeting the educational needs of disabled children as adequately as the needs of nondisabled children are met. The Supreme Court recently redefined FAPE in the Endrew F. v. Douglas Co. School Dist. Re-1, 137 S. Ct. 988 (2017). The decision in Endrew F. and the Analysis of Endrew F. are on Wrightslaw.com. In Wrightslaw: Special Education Cases and Legal Developments 2017, you will find the full text of the Supreme Court decisions in Endrew F.and Fry v. Napolean Commun. Schools, 137 S. Ct. 743 (2017), the Syllabi prepared by the Reporter of Decisions, and transcripts of Remarks by the Justices who wrote the decisions. Without regard to whether a child does or does not have a disability, some states have statutes or constitutional provisions that provide a right to an education. This differs from one state to another and is not governed by federal law. If a state provides a right to education, then, following Brown, "it is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms."
Recent Cases About the Right to an Education Recent cases in Michigan and New Mexico addressed the right to an education. Gary B. et al. v. Whitmer et al., In Gary B. et al. v. Whitmer et al., 329 F.Supp.3d 344 (2018), the District Court . . .
The District Court's decision in the Gary B. case was appealed to the Sixth Circuit, where a three-judge panel reviewed the District Court decision. On April 23, 2020, with one judge dissenting, the Court of Appeals reversed, stating that:
This means that the earlier April 23 decision was vacated. Several weeks later, after the case was vacated, the case was settled. After the settlement, the Sixth Circuit issued an Order dismissing the case. Thus, the Sixth Circuit's ruling that established that a constitutional right to an education, vacated two weeks earlier, was dead.
Hernandez v. New Mexico On December 18, 2020, in Hernandez v. New Mexico (20-cv-00942-JB-GBW), a decision was issued in another case that addressed the right to an education. Referencing the above Sixth Circuit case, the District Court Judge wrote that the Gary B. decision, "if allowed to stand, would have shifted ultimate authority over public education policy and funding away from state and local communities and toward litigants and judges in federal courts."
In justifying his decision, the Judge in Hernandez wrote: "First, the educational rights that the Plaintiffs allege that the Defendants violate are not fundamental . . . [T]he Supreme Court has made plain that no general right to education exists."
The New Mexico case is currently on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Briefs have been filed and Oral Argument is scheduled for September 21, 2021. (Case # 20-2176) Issues Influencing Judicial Decisions About Education I believe two issues are having a powerful impact on SCOTUS and other courts. The first issue is the fear of federalism in education since education is essentially a function of the states, not the federal government. States have made it clear that they do not want a national uniform curriculum, national standards, or more federal control over education.
Copyright © 1998-2024, Peter W. D. Wright and Pamela Darr
Wright. All rights reserved.
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