San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez

U.S. Case Law

411 U.S. 1 (1973), ruled that the Constitution is silent on the matter of a person's right to an education and therefore a state which finances its schools through local property taxes violates no constitutional principle in so doing, even if marked economic disparities among school districts exist. This case originated as a class-action suit brought by parents in a property-poor Texas district. A federal district court found for the parents, holding that the state had abridged their right to equal protection by allowing property-rich districts to receive and spend more tax dollars per pupil than were spent in the parents' district. The Supreme Court, however, reversed the decision on the grounds that education is not taken up in the Constitution and that Texas, at any rate, was providing a free basic education to every child and therefore was not discriminating against any class of persons. The case had broad nationwide implications for the way schools could be financed.