Page:Lake View School District No. 25 v. Huckabee, 351 Ark. 31 (2002).pdf/3

Rh his or her cultural and historical heritage; (vi) sufficient training or preparation for advanced training in either academic or vocational fields so as to enable each child to choose and pursue life work intelligently; and (vii) sufficient levels of academic or vocational skills to enable public school students to compete favorably with their counterparts in surrounding states, in academics or in the job market.
 * 1) EDUCATION—EQUAL EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY—BASIC TO SOCIETY.—Education becomes the essential prerequisite that allows citizens to be able to appreciate, claim; and effectively realize their established rights; the right to equal educational opportunity is basic to our society.
 * 2) EDUCATION—REQUIREMENT OF GENERAL, SUITABLE, & EFFICIENT SYSTEM OF FREE PUBLIC SCHOOLS—STATE HAS ABSOLUTE DUTY TO PROVIDE ADEQUATE EDUCATION.—Education has always been of supreme importance to the people of Arkansas; the General Assembly recognized this in Act 1307 of 1997, when it acknowledged that the State is constitutionally required to provide a general, suitable, and efficient system of free public schools, and that the Arkansas courts have held that obligation to be a "paramount duty"; the requirement of a general, suitable, and efficient system of free public schools places on the State an absolute duty to provide the school children of Arkansas with an adequate education.
 * 3) CONSTITUTIONAL LAW—CONSTRUCTION OF LANGUAGE OF CONSTITUTION—PLAIN, OBVIOUS, & COMMON MEANING.—In construing the language of the Arkansas Constitution, the supreme court must give the language its plain, obvious, and common meaning.
 * 4) CONSTITUTIONAL LAW—STRICT SCRUTINY—APPLIED WHEN IMPAIRMENT OF FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT CLAIMED.—Strict scrutiny usually goes hand-in-hand with a claim that a fundamental right has been impaired.
 * 5) EDUCATION—PERFORMANCE OF STATE'S DUTY TO PROVIDE ADEQUATE EDUCATION IS ABSOLUTE CONSTITUTIONAL REQUIREMENT—STATE FAILED IN PERFORMANCE OF ITS DUTY.—Because the supreme court determined that the clear language of Ark. Const. art. 14 imposes upon the State an absolute constitutional duty to educate its children, the supreme court concluded that it was unnecessary to reach the issue of whether a fundamental right was also implied; the critical point was that the State has an absolute duty under the Arkansas Constitution to provide an