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1 Joseph Henchman & Paul Galindo, Tax Foundation Urges Indiana Court Should Avoid Education Finance Mess: Bonner v. Daniels 1 (2008)

handle is hein.taxfoundation/ffbdixz0001 and id is 1 raw text is: TAX
FOUNDATION
Tax Foundation Urges Indiana Court to Avoid Education Finance
Mess: Bonner v. Daniels
Fiscal Fact No. 138
by Joseph Henchman and Paul Galindo
August 18, 2008
BriefArgues State Constitution Does Not Require Judicial Funding Mandate
The Tax Foundation, in a friend-of-the-court brief filed with the Indiana Supreme Court, urges
the reversal of a lower court decision creating a judicially enforceable right to a quality
education. The brief explains that such an interpretation goes beyond the text and historical
meaning of the Education Clause of the Indiana Constitution, focuses improperly on funding as
the only way to improve state education, and ignores the problematic experiences other states
have had with judicial funding mandates.
The Indiana Constitution Does Not Create a Judicially-Enforced Right to a Quality
Education
Article VIII, Section 1 of the Indiana Constitution requires that, in order to preserve a free
government, the General Assembly shall (1) encourage knowledge, (2) provide for a general and
uniform school system, (3) charge no fees for this system, and (4) make it open to all. In other
words, the Indiana Government is obligated to establish free public schools. Nothing in the
Education Clause establishes a specific, defined level of education that must be attained, but
rather only that the state maintains a generally supportive stance towards knowledge and
learning. Evidence from the framing of the Indiana Constitution, outlined in the brief, supports
this interpretation.
By contrast, the lower court in this case concluded that the education system envisioned by the
framers (presumably reading, writing, arithmetic, and civics) is inadequate because students
cannot secure their place in the global economy. Even if this meaningless statement described
a serious problem, it would be one for the Legislature because such policy concerns cannot
overcome the lack of textual or historical support necessary to elevate a perspective into a

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