Education then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men, the balance-wheel of the social machinery.[1] – Horace Mann

 When the great educational reformer Horace Mann wrote these words, he echoed an increasingly popular belief in early American thought: the public education system as the antidote to poverty.[2] From the nation’s earliest years, the Founding Fathers saw education as a necessary means to protect the experiment of democracy.[3] So vital was education to the nation’s survival that John Adams proclaimed, “no expense . . . would be too extravagant.”[4]

However, it is no secret that for many Americans, these ideals have gone unfulfilled for decades. The COVID-19 pandemic only made an already fragile system worse.[5] By spring 2023, only 56% of fourth graders were performing at grade level in math—a steep drop from 69% in 2019.[6] Increased spending alone has proven insufficient; it has been a band-aid on a much deeper wound. Take New York City, for example. In 2021, the city allocated approximately $38,000 per student yet still produced only mediocre academic outcomes.[7] The same story plays out across the country, because pouring money into a broken system does not fix the system itself.[8]

Legal challenges over school funding have long recognized that inequitable education systems perpetuate poverty.[9] Many states’ supreme courts have echoed the principle first articulated in Brown v. Board of Education (1954): “These days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.”[10]

One such case is Rose v. Council for Better Education (Ky. 1989). There, the Kentucky Supreme Court held that the Commonwealth’s common school system was constitutionally deficient.[11] The court cited striking disparities between wealthy and poor districts—students in low-income areas consistently scored lower on achievement tests because school funding depended on local property taxes.[12] Testimony also revealed gaps in teacher pay, access to instructional materials, student-teacher ratios, and a host of other discrepancies.[13] The justices concluded that the quality of education in poorer districts was “substantially less” in nearly every category.[14] In response, the Kentucky General Assembly enacted the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 (KERA) which overhauled its education system.[15]

Another significant decision was Abbeville County School District v. State (S.C. 2014), where the South Carolina Supreme Court struck down the state’s education funding system as unconstitutional under its education clause.[16] The court found that the system failed to provide even a minimally adequate education, particularly for children in poor districts.[17] It described how a child born into poverty, “devoid of printed word, the lifeblood of literacy,” begins school already far behind and rarely catches up without meaningful state intervention.[18] Evidence showed chronic shortages in qualified teachers, classroom materials, and early-childhood programs.[19] The ruling underscored that poverty and education are inseparable: when states neglect under-resourced communities, they deny children the opportunity to escape poverty through learning.

The outcomes in Rose and Abbeville mark a recognition of education as a tool against poverty. They reveal how law can push states to reconsider what equality in education truly means. Still, lasting change will require continued effort beyond the courtroom, yet these rulings offer a valuable framework for future reform—and perhaps, a glimpse at the path toward a fairer system.

[1] Nat’l Park Serv., The Struggle for Equal Education (last updated Jan. 23, 2025), https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/the-struggle-for-equal-education.htm#ftrefl% [https://perma.cc/ZVQ6-MWZJ].

[2] Id.

[3] See Derek W. Black, America’s Founders Recognized the Need for Public Education. Democracy Requires Maintaining That Commitment, time (Sep. 22, 2020), https://time.com/5891261/early-american-education-history/.

[4] Id.

[5] See ctr. for educ. pol’y res., harv univ., The Scary Truth About How Far Behind American Kids Have Fallen, (Sept. 20, 2024), https://cepr.harvard.edu/news/scary-truth-about-how-far-behind-american-kids-have-fallen [https://perma.cc/8CWH-84VS].

[6] Id.

[7] Donald Nielsen, Our Public School System Is Set Up To Fail – and It’s Succeeding, Discovery Inst. (July 11, 2023), https://www.discovery.org/education/2023/07/11/our-public-school-system-is-set-up-to-fail-and-its-succeeding/ [https://perma.cc/6X93-MSFM].

[8] Id.

[9] See Equality of Opportunity & Educ., Stanford Univ., Landmark US Cases Related to Equality of Opportunity in K-12 Education, https://edeq.stanford.edu/sections/section-4-lawsuits/landmark-us-cases-related-equality-opportunity-k-12-education [https://perma.cc/RWL9-EWJB ] (last visited Dec. 15, 2025).

[10] Brown v. Board of Educ., 347 U.S. 483, 493 (1954), quoted in Abbeville Cnty. Sch. Dist. v. State, 767 S.E.2d 157, 159 (2014).

[11] Rose v. Council for Better Educ., Inc., 790 S.W.2d 186, 189 (Ky. 1989).

[12] Id. at 197.

[13] Id. at 198.

[14] Id.

[15] See Kentucky Legislative Research Commission, A Guide to the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 (Apr. 1990), https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED327352 [https://perma.cc/F393-UXV8].

[16] Abbeville Cnty. Sch. Dist. v. State, 410 S.C. 619, 673 (2014).

[17] Id. at 676.

[18] Id. at 627–28.

[19] See Id. at 627–650.