Private School Voucher Remedies in Education Cases

Abstract

Forty-nine state constitutions guarantee the right to an education.' Under these provisions, state legislatures have a duty to provide students with a minimum level of education. Several courts have ruled that their states' school systems have failed to satisfy their constitutional standards, and have ordered legislatures to improve conditions. Nonetheless, most legislatures remain defiant, failing to ensure adequate educational programs. Education litigation over adequate schooling has resulted in prolonged struggles between the judicial and legislative branches of state governments. Courts have largely left funding decisions to state legislatures due to separation-of-powers concerns. Legislatures, however, have generally been unwilling or unable to provide sufficient funding for local schools. Schools lack proper funding for construction, educational programs, and teacher training. Consequently, students continue to attend constitutionally inadequate public schools. Frustrated by legislative inaction, student-plaintiffs in two recent suits brought under state constitutional education provisions requested remedies in the form of vouchers, which would allow the students to apply state funds to private school tuition.