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.

Rural Schools Under Scrutiny

Historically, rural schools have been geographically and politically isolated to the extent that some might say that they have been the victims of, or beneficiaries from, an unstated government policy of benign neglect. Recently, conditions and relationships have changed with the enactment of state and federal accountability legislation and legal challenges to the constitutionality of state funding systems for schools. Federal concerns about the quality of teachers and the progress of students are accompanied by state standards, proficiency tests for high school graduation, and school report cards. Most of these requirements are unfunded or under-funded mandates. However, rural schools likely will benefit from the recent shift in school finance litigation from a single emphasis on equity to a dual interest in equity and adequacy. If education is a state responsibility, then in an era of state-mandated standards and assessments, the state has an inherent responsibility to ensure that students have access to the human and material resources required for them to meet standards and pass state proficiency examinations.