Paying for Schools

Local property taxes are almost universally used in the U.S. to support public schools. The unsurprising result is that areas with high property values tend to have more money to spend on education than do poor areas. First the California Supreme Court and then a number of other courts found that this disparity was a denial of equal protection under the law. But last week, in admitted fear of what the principle would mean for other public services, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the current property-tax system does pass constitutional muster.

In a case challenging Texas' school-finance system, Justice Lewis Powell wrote that "education is not among the rights afforded explicit protection under our Constitution." He further contended that "where wealth is involved the Equal Protection Clause does not require absolute equality or precisely equal advantages." Potter Stewart, who provided the critical fifth vote, explained that the "clause is offended only by laws that are invidiously discriminatory--only by classifications that are wholly arbitrary or capricious." Although all the Justices agreed that the current system is a mess, the majority felt that changes should be made by state legislatures, while Dissenter Thurgood Marshall argued that the court's failure to act was "a retreat from our historic commitment to equality of educational opportunity."

The court also departed slightly from the "one man, one vote" rule last week when it allowed two water-control boards, which deal with irrigation of small areas in California and Wyoming, to be elected by votes weighted according to how much land the voter owned. The "one acre, one vote" principle was based on the fact that payment for the water-management costs was also weighted according to the amount of land. As in the property-tax case, the unsuccessful plaintiffs had alleged a violation of the Equal Protection Clause. The effect of the two decisions was to limit the scope of that clause, which activist lawyers had hoped to use to help equalize poor and rich neighborhoods in everything from garbage collection and road maintenance to street lighting and sewer facilities.

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