Will the General Assembly Let Voters Decide if Education Should be a Constitutional Right?
Gary Sasse, Guest MINDSETTER™
Will the General Assembly Let Voters Decide if Education Should be a Constitutional Right?
What recourse do many Rhode Island parents have to help their sons and daughters succeed academically? The obvious answer would be for parents to get more involved with their child’s learning experience by working closely with their teachers and educators. Failing this the other option is to remove their kids from the traditional public school if economically feasible.
In Rhode Island, this is practically all parents can do because access to educational opportunities is not a constitutionally enforceable right. As a result, parents advocating for their children may hit a brick wall. Just imagine how frustrating this would be if your child did not have access to adequate schooling, and you had limited resources and ability to make the situation better.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTTo address this inequality, the Rhode Island Senate passed legislation that would place a question on the November ballot to amend the state constitution. This proposed amendment would make access to adequate and meaningful education a constitutionally enforceable right.
Senator Roger Picard (D-District 20), the prime sponsor of the legislation, said, “We should make a very firm commitment to providing educational opportunities for every child, regardless of their circumstances or their Zip code.”
The Senate, to its credit, unanimously agreed to place a question on the ballot that, if passed, would make access to educational opportunity a fundamental right in the Ocean State. The only obstacle to letting the voters consider this constitutional change would be for the Rhode Island House of Representatives not to give voters the opportunity to decide if education should be an enforceable constitutional right. Hopefully, in the coming weeks House Leadership will allow our representatives to consider this important matter.
The bottom line is that the proposed constitutional amendment would enable parents to seek judicial review if they had reason to believe that their children were not being afforded access to adequate educational opportunities.
The Senate’s proposed constitutional amendment is modeled after a similar provision in the Bay State. The Massachusetts Constitution provides that the Commonwealth has a duty to provide an adequate educational opportunity to all public-school students. While the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decreed that an adequate and equitably funded education was an enforceable constitutional right, Rhode Island’s highest court ruled that Rhode Island’s constitution does not provide for such a guarantee. Rather, in Rhode Island, it is the responsibility of the General Assembly to determine what is an adequate education.
These differences between Massachusetts and Rhode Island may be having an impact on educational outcomes and practices. Because education is an enforceable right in the Bay State, parents and advocates in the Commonwealth have leverage; something Rhode Island parents do not have to the same degree. There is nothing like the threat of court intervention to get the attention of lawmakers, local officials, and governors. As a result, Massachusetts is recognized as having a strong public educational system, consistently ranking among the top states in the nation. The same cannot be said about Rhode Island.
It has been often said that education is the civil rights issue of the 21st Century. Access to educational opportunities is the linchpin for both reaching one’s full potential and economic growth. It is essential that states make access to educational opportunities a fundamental right for all kids.
Gary Sasse served as Rhode Island’s Director of Administration and Revenue and Executive Director of RIPEC.