CONNECTICUT

Constitutional Clause/Language

“There shall always be free public elementary and secondary schools in the state.” Conn. Const. art. 8, s 1.

Major Court Decision: Horton v. Meskill, 376 A2d 359

Result: Financing System Overturned

Summary: The Court held that education is a fundamental right in Connecticut and, therefore, disparities between school districts could not pass strict scrutiny.

Key Quotes:

“... Elementary and secondary education is a fundamental right, and pupils in the public schools are entitled to the equal enjoyment of that right, state system of financing public elementary and secondary education which depends primarily on local property tax base without regard to disparity in the financial ability of towns to finance an educational program and with no significant equalizing state support cannot pass the test of “strict judicial scrutiny”  Id. at 649.

“We conclude... the present legislation enacted by the General Assembly to discharge the state's constitutional duty to educate its children, depending, as it does, primarily on a local property tax base without regard to the disparity in the financial ability of the towns to finance an educational program and with no significant equalizing state support, is not “appropriate legislation” (article eighth, s 1) to implement the requirement that the state provide a substantially equal educational opportunity to its youth in its free public.”  Id.