Skip to main content

Education Is Not A Right Guaranteed In U.S. Constitution

1973

In this challenge to the Texas property tax scheme that meant that schools in low-income areas received significantly less per-pupil funding than higher-income areas, the U.S. Supreme Court finds that the disparate funding does not violate the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. In San Antonio v. Rodriguez, the Court holds that education is not a fundamental right protected by the U.S. Constitution and thus the state need only provide a rational reason to support its policy. After this decision, legal challenges to differences in educational funding are brought under state constitutions in state courts with varying results.