Page:Lake View School District No. 25 v. Huckabee, 351 Ark. 31 (2002).pdf/37

Rh in this court's mind that 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. The next question, however, is whether this language also implies a fundamental right vested in the people of this state so as to require strict scrutiny of all legislative actions regarding it.

[9] In resolving this question, we look first to the Arkansas Constitution. Article 2 of the Constitution, entitled Declaration of Rights, deals with the personal rights vested in the people of this state, including equality, free speech and free press, the right to trial by jury, the right to due process and bail, the right to be protected against self-incrimination and double jeopardy, the right to be protected against unreasonable searches and seizures, and the right to religious freedom. The Education Article is found in a separate article, Article 14, and it is couched in terms of the state's duty and not in terms of a personal right vested in the people. This court has said repeatedly that in construing the language of our constitution, we must give the language its plain, obvious, and common meaning. See, e.g., Maddox v. City of Fort Smith, 346 Ark. 209, 56 S.W.3d 209 (2001); Daniel v. Jones, 332 Ark. 489, 966 S.W.2d 226 (1998). Nonetheless, Lake View and the intervening school districts urge that a fundamental right can be implied from the language of Article 14. See, e.g., ''Claremont Sch. Dist. v. Governor'', 142 N.H. 462, 703 A.2d 1353 (1997) (constitution's specific charge to legislature to provide education is sufficient to afford fundamental-right status to beneficiaries of that duty).

Other states in the last decade have wrestled with the issue of whether education is a fundamental right under the Education Article of their state constitutions, thus necessitating strict scrutiny of all legislative actions affecting education. Of course, the education language in each state constitution varies. Some states that have found their school-funding systems to be inadequate under their respective education articles simply have not addressed the issue of whether an adequate education is a fundamental right. See, e.g., DeRolph v. State, 78 Ohio St. 3d 193, 677 N.E.2d 733 (1997); McDuffy v. Secretary of the Executive Office of Educ., 415