Opinion ID: 2077353
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 19

Heading: Nebraska's Constitutional History Regarding Legislature's Duty to Provide Free Public Schools Shows Qualitative Standards Have Been Omitted

Text: In Nebraska's first state Constitution, the framers rejected the thorough and efficient language that is found in many other state constitutions. In its cross-appeal, the State correctly points out that the education article in Nebraska's 1866 territorial constitution contained a more qualitative duty to secure a system of schools. It also referred to the means of financing schools: The legislature shall make such provisions by taxation or otherwise, as, with the income arising from the school trust fund, will secure a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the state .... [61] After Nebraska was admitted as a state, however, the 1875 constitution did not contain the thorough and efficient language or refer to any means of financing schools. [62] Additionally, the framers rejected language that would have required uniformity between schools. Article VII, § 5, of the 1871 proposed state constitution would have included a uniformity clause: The legislature shall provide by law for the establishment of district schools which shall be as nearly uniform as practicable, and such schools shall be free, and without charge for tuition, to all children between the ages of five and twenty-one years. [63] The 1871 constitution, however, was never adopted. [64] Although the constitutional debates from the 1875 convention have been lost, [65] there is no uniformity clause in the 1875 constitution. [66] In 1972, the people explicitly left all funding of public schools to the Legislature's exclusive discretion. The 1875 constitution contained a separate section requiring an equitable distribution of the income of the fund set [a]part for the support of the common schools, among the several school districts. [67] This provision, however, was omitted from the Nebraska Constitution as part of 1972 amendments to recodify, revise, and clarify article VII. [68] The Nebraska Constitution now provides that all funds for the support and maintenance of the common schools shall be used as the Legislature shall provide. [69] Finally, in 1996, voters rejected a constitutional amendment that would have imposed qualitative standards on the type of education the Legislature must provide. The amendment would have made a `quality education' ... a fundamental constitutional right of each person and a `thorough and efficient education' ... the `paramount duty' of the state. This constitutional history shows that the framers of the 1875 constitution intentionally omitted any language from the free instruction clause that would have placed restrictions or qualitative standards on the Legislature's duties regarding education. Nor has the Coalition pointed to any history showing that the framers intended the State to make up for funding shortages in individual school districts. We interpret the paucity of standards in the free instruction clause as the framers' intent to commit the determination of adequate school funding solely to the Legislature's discretion, greater resources, and expertise.