No Time to Lose
In this chapter, the Southern Education Foundation (SEF) make the case for an Education Amendment to the United States Constitution. SEF begins with an examination of why a high-quality education is vital to US national interests and contends that it is time for a fundamental change that embraces a federal guarantee of a high-quality education. SEF acknowledges the positive impacts of equity and adequacy litigation, while also noting that this litigation is unable to address radical inequality in the willingness or capacity of states to provide equitable and adequate resources for a high-quality education. SEF argues that an Education Amendment is the best approach for reducing radical disparities in the opportunity to learn and for ratifying public support for national leadership in education. An Education Amendment also would help to build public consensus for effective reform. SEF concludes by explaining why an effort to pass such an amendment would have a positive impact even if the effort was unsuccessful.