Page:Lake View School District No. 25 v. Huckabee, 351 Ark. 31 (2002).pdf/6

36 VIOLATED EQUAL-PROTECTION SECTIONS OF ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION.—The supreme court held that the trial court did not err in concluding that the current school-funding system violated the equal-protection sections of the Arkansas Constitution in that equal educational opportunity was not being afforded to Arkansas school children and that there was no legitimate government purpose warranting the discrepancies in curriculum, facilities, equipment, and teacher pay among the school districts; whether a school child has equal educational opportunities is largely an accident of residence.
 * 1) CONSTITUTIONAL LAW—EDUCATION ARTICLE—PLAIN LANGUAGE DOES NOT MANDATE STATE-PROVIDED, EARLY-CHILDHOOD EDUCATION.—The plain language of Ark. Const. art. 14, § 1, does not mandate the chancery court's order of State-provided, early-childhood education; section 1 reads in pertinent part that the General Assembly. and public school districts "may spend public funds for the education of persons over twenty-one (21) years of age and under six (6) years of age, as may be provided by law, and no other interpretation shall be given to it."
 * 2) CONSTITUTIONAL LAW—SEPARATION OF POWERS—ONE BRANCH OF GOVERNMENT SHALL NOT EXERCISE POWER OF ANOTHER.—Aside from the fact that Ark. Const. art. 14 does not require early childhood education and leaves that matter to the General Assembly, the trial court could not order the implementation of pre-school programs, which is a public-policy issue for the General Assembly to explore and resolve; it is elementary that the powers of our state government are divided into three separate branches of government (Ark. Const. art. 4, § 1); the state constitution further provides that one branch of government shall not exercise the power of another (Ark. Const. art. 4, § 2).
 * 3) CONSTITUTIONAL LAW—SEPARATION OF POWERS—LEGISLATURE CAN NEITHER BE COERCED NOR CONTROLLED BY JUDICIAL POWER.—The legislature can neither be coerced nor controlled by judicial power; the legislature is responsible to the people alone, not to the courts, for its disregard of, or failure to perform, a duty clearly enjoined upon it by the constitution, and the remedy is with the people, by electing other servants, and not through the courts; the state's constitution is neither an enabling act nor a grant of enumerated powers, and the legislature may rightfully exercise the power of the people, subject only to restrictions and limitations axed by the constitutions of the United States and Arkansas; under our system of government the legislature represents the people and