Charles J. Ogletree, Jr. & Kimberly Jenkins Robinson, Rodriguez Reconsidered: Is There a Federal Constitutional Right to Education?: Inequitable Schools Demand a Federal Remedy, 17 Educ. Next, Spring 2017, at 70.
Abstract: Does the U.S. Constitution guarantee a right to education? It does not, the Supreme Court declared in San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, a 1973 case alleging that disparities in spending levels among Texas school districts violated students’ constitutional rights. In this issue’s forum, Charles Ogletree, Harvard Law School professor, and Kimberly Robinson, professor at the University of Richmond School of Law, assert that the court should overturn the Rodriguez decision, thus opening the door to federal remedies to public-education inequality. On the other side, Alfred A. Lindseth, Rocco E. Testani, and Lee A. Peifer, attorneys at the law firm Eversheds Sutherland (US), contend that a reversal of Rodriguez would lead not to educational parity but to endless litigation.