WEST VIRGINIA

Constitutional Clause/Language

“The legislature shall provide, by general law, for a thorough and efficient system of free schools.” W.V. Const. art. 12, s. 1.

Major Court Decision: Pauley v. Kelly, 255 S.E.2d 859 (W.V. 1979).

Result: Financing System Overturned

Summary: The West Virginia Supreme Court held that education is a fundamental right.  Additionally, the court held that the “through and efficient” clause requires the state to provide a particularly high quality of education.  The court outlined what that education should entail.

Key Quotes:

“We may now define a thorough and efficient system of schools: It develops, as best the state of education expertise allows, the minds, bodies and social morality of its charges to prepare them for useful and happy occupations, recreation and citizenship, and does so economically.”  Id. at 706.

“Legally recognized elements in this definition are development in every child to his or her capacity of:

(1) literacy;

(2) ability to add, subtract, multiply and divide numbers;

(3) knowledge of government to the extent that the child will be equipped as a citizen to make informed choices among persons and issues that affect his own governance;

(4) self-knowledge and knowledge of his or her total environment to allow the child to intelligently choose life work to know his or her options;

(5) work-training and advanced academic training as the child may intelligently choose;

(6) recreational pursuits;

(7) interests in all creative arts, such as music, theatre, literature, and the visual arts; (8) social ethics, both behavioral and abstract, to facilitate compatibility with others in this society.”  Id. at 706.

“Implicit are supportive services: (1) good physical facilities, instructional materials and personnel; (2) careful state and local supervision to prevent waste and to monitor pupil, teacher and administrative competency.”  Id. at 707.

“We conceive that both our equal protection and thorough and efficient constitutional principles can be applied harmoniously to the State school financing system. Certainly, the mandatory requirement of ‘a thorough and efficient system of free schools,’ found in Article XII, Section 1 of our Constitution, demonstrates that education is a fundamental constitutional right in this State.”  Id. at 707.

“Because education is a fundamental constitutional right in this State, then, under our equal protection guarantees any discriminatory classification found in the educational financing system cannot stand unless the State can demonstrate some compelling State interest to justify the unequal classification.”  Id.

“Given the legally recognized components of thorough and efficient school systems, it is obvious from the circuit court's findings about Lincoln County schools that they are, to say the least, woefully inadequate by those standards, and we would frankly be surprised if the school system will meet any thorough and efficient standard that may be developed on the remand.”  Id. at 708.

“We [sic] have determined that the Thorough and Efficient Clause requires the development of certain high quality educational standards, and that it is in part by these quality standards that the existing educational system must be tested. Directly related to this is the further finding that if these values are not currently being met, it must be ascertained that this failure is not a result of inefficiency and failure to follow existing school statutes.”  Id. at 708.