More than twenty years ago, the Rhode Island Supreme Court rejected a lower court ruling that our state Constitution guaranteed children the right to an “equal, adequate and meaningful education.” Four years ago, the Supreme Court reaffirmed that decision, saying it was “sensitive” to the concerns that the state’s school funding formula created unfair disparities between poor, urban schools and more affluent communities, but that it was bound by the previous precedent to reject this newer constitutional challenge to the formula.
This year, a Joint Resolution was introduced which proposed to put before voters a Constitutional amendment revising the language in the Article to be more explicit about its goal, and establishing the right to an adequate education for Rhode Island’s youth as a fundamental and judicially enforceable right. The ACLU of Rhode Island supported these efforts to resolve inequality in education throughout the state, but neither bill was voted on.
