NORTH DAKOTA

Constitutional Clause/Language

“A high degree of intelligence, patriotism, integrity and morality on the part of every voter

in a government by the people being necessary in order to insure the continuance of that

government and the prosperity and happiness of the people, the legislative assembly

 shall make provision for the establishment and maintenance of a system of public

schools . . .” N.D.Const. art. VIII, s 147.

Major Court Decision: Bismarck Pub. Sch. Dist. No. 1 v. State, 511 N.W.2d 247 (N.D. 1994).

Result: Financing System Overturned

Summary: Education is a Fundamental Right.

Key Quotes:

 “We hold that the funding of the previously recognized fundamental constitutional right to education is an important substantive right. We further hold that the widely disparate effect of the State's method of accomplishing this important substantive right fails to bear a close correspondence to the achievement of the constitutionally mandated goal of an equal educational opportunity...”  Id. at 251.

“... We agree with the rationale of those courts that, while recognizing the importance of education, have concluded that legislative determinations about the financing mix for education involve difficult questions of local and statewide taxation, fiscal planning, and education policy, which are ill-suited for strict scrutiny analysis... We therefore decline to apply the rigorous and exacting standards of strict scrutiny to disparities in education funding, and we conclude that strict scrutiny is not applicable to this equal protection challenge.”

[Education is a fundamental right, but the state’s educational financing scheme is not subject to strict scrutiny.]  Id. at 257.

“However, unlike those jurisdictions which have concluded that strict scrutiny is not applicable to state equal protection challenges to financing education and have thus analyzed the issue under the rational basis standard, our state equal protection cases also require consideration of the intermediate level of heightened scrutiny for important substantive rights.”  Id.

“In this case, the overall effect of the Legislature's statutory method for funding education authorizes the distribution of funding primarily on the basis of property wealth in the different school districts throughout the state. That distribution is not necessarily related to any aspect of educational needs, or educational cost per pupil, and, as a whole, fails to bear a close correspondence either to the constitutional mandate to provide an equal educational opportunity, or to the legislative goal of "support[ing] elementary and secondary education in this state from state funds based on the educational cost per pupil." NDCC 15-40.1-06(1).  Id. at 260.

“We conclude that the effect of the Legislature's statutory method for distributing funding for primary and secondary education in North Dakota, as a whole, does not bear a close correspondence to the goals of providing an equal educational opportunity, and of supporting elementary and secondary education from state funds based on the educational cost per pupil. We do not hold that any one of the various statutes for distributing funding, by itself, is unconstitutional, or that our constitution requires equal dollar funding per pupil throughout the state. The Legislature must have some freedom to relate funding to the actual costs of educating pupils, and those costs may vary throughout a state with our demographic characteristics.”  Id. at 263.