Deck 2: Fundamental Rights and State School Finance Litigation

Question 1

Although education may not be a fundamental right, everyone must receive an adequate state-funded education by virtue of simply being human.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Without knowledge there can be no understanding as to the meaning of important human rights such as liberty and equality.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Jefferson stated that it was important to give people knowledge in order to safeguard the public against tyranny.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Vladimir Lenin referred to the absence of education as the curse of ignorance.

Question 5

Horace Mann believed that the Commonwealth was obligated to provide education to all citizens for the purpose of international economic competiveness.

Question 6

The Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution enunciate negative rights or negative liberties that the government shall not deny.

Question 7

Individual state constitutions are designed similarly to the Federal Constitution and also enunciate negative rights and liberties that shall not be denied.

Question 8

Recent decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court have rejected any affirmative or positive right to government aid for education or welfare.

Question 9

Negative liberty is the liberty that John Stuart Mill analyzed the social and political world in terms of a struggle between liberty and authority.

Question 10

According to Berlin, negative freedom permits one to form a particular of life, freedom to become an autonomous human being, freedom to have equal prospects in life.

Question 11

Positive rights were set forth best by George Washington in his Virginia Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge (1779)

Question 12

Education is considered a fundamental right under the equal protection clause contained in the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Question 13

State constitutions are different from the U.S. Constitution in that they include various levels of explicit requirements, or mandates required of the state legislatures.

Question 14

A fundamental right is:

A) inherent in the individual
B) constitutes a protected claim that need not be earned
C) found in moral law
D) all of the above

Question 15

Horace Mann often is referred as:

A) Father of public schools
B) first Secretary of Education
C) founder of the Educators' Insurance Co.
D) none of the above

Question 16

The U.S. Constitution, i.e., the Bill of Rights, was written so that:

A) Congress is mandated to provide a System of Public Schools
B) Common schools are required state institutions
C) Congress cannot deny certain Rights of Individuals
D) all of the above

Question 17

Under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in San Antonio Independent School District No.1 v. Rodriguez that:

A) education is a fundamental right
B) funding disparities among states and localities are prohibited
C) the uneven distribution of burdens or benefits resulting from poorly designed state school finance systems are permissible
D) none of the above

Question 18

The Supreme Court in Rodriguez held that state constitutional requirements:

A) commit the state to explicit public goals
B) compel state legislatures to enact policies for implementation of the goals
C) alter the terms of political discourse
D) all of the above

Question 19

In order for a plaintiff to prevail in equity and/or adequacy litigation:

A) file the complaint in a state trial court
B) the state trial court must rule that education is a fundamental right
C) the state constitution must bestow to the individual a positive right to an
D) education
E) none of the above