One does not need to be a scholar, educator, or parent to understand the importance of an adequate education. Education has long been hailed as the mechanism by which those who are born into underprivileged families can change their economic situations for the better. The constitutions of every state in the United States of America have a provision for education. Yet, the Constitution of the United States does not explicitly state that education is a fundamental right. Although the jurisprudence in the United States has come a long way in understanding the value of racially and socioeconomically integrated public schools, states have found various mechanisms— under the guise of school choice—to undermine integration. School choice is championed as a means to allow the educational market to correct itself. However, children whose families do not have the means or knowledge to exercise school choice often remain in schools with decreased funding due to the reallocation of public-school resources to charter schools and voucher programs.
This article will explore the right to an adequate education against a political landscape that encourages school choice yet minimizes the effect that the rise in white and affluent families exercising school choice has on the educational experiences of students of color and poor students. Part I will present evidence that an adequate education is a fundamental right. Part II will discuss the establishment of the “separate but equal” doctrine that lead to a litany of school desegregation litigation, and the United States Supreme Court’s integration jurisprudence that supports the position presented in Part I. Part III of this article will present case studies of secession efforts of suburban counties in the southern United States— namely, in Alabama, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Part IV will analyze the Equal Protection Clause’s applicability to the rights of students of color and poor students who remain in public schools after the removal of their white and affluent peers under school choice options.