The present Indiana State Constitution was approved
by the voters in 1851. It has stood strong, acted
as the cap of all our laws and protected the citizens
of Indiana throughout those more than one hundred
and fifty years. Today it is under attack as it has
never before in all its history. Of all those things
it limits and defines none are as important as the
public education system it defines. It instructs the
Indiana General Assembly to install a general and
uniform school system throughout the state. The Article
that defines the school system:
Article VIII, Section 1: Knowledge and learning, general
diffused throughout a community, being essential to
the preservation of a free government; it shall be
the duty of the General Assembly to encourage, by
all suitable means, moral, intellectual scientific,
and agricultural improvement; and provide, by law,
for a general and uniform system of Common Schools,
wherein tuition shall be without charge, and equally
open to all.
This short paragraph defines the envisioned school
system and directs the General Assembly to ensure
that the school system is established throughout the
state, general, and that each school shall offer the
same curriculum, uniform.
That’s all it says and that is plenty. It defines
the school system that is to be set up by the General
Assembly and in that short statement explicitly states
that the system shall be uniform. Each student, anywhere
in the state, shall have the right to expect the same
education no matter which school he attends, be it
Indianapolis Public School system or Dime Box, Indiana.
It is also binding both ways. The General Assembly
has the responsibility to set up the system, therefore
the school system is responsible to, and is bound
to receive its support only from the General Assembly.
The General Assembly may not delegate its Constitutionally
delegated responsibility to any other forum. If the
Constitution binds the General Assembly to set up
the school system then that school system is as well
responsible to the General Assembly and may not accept
control from any outside source. That includes the
federal government.
A Response To: Indiana Commission on Mental Healt
