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I believe that an educated society is a free society. I also believe that each individual has a sort of moral obligation to do what they can to preserve freedom. At the very least, they should not stand in the way of it. So putting freedom and moral obligation together, then I would say that a free society has a moral obligation to promote education as a core value, and an equal obligation to not get in the way of an individual's ambition to obtain an education.

But how that opportunity is implemented should be dependent upon the standards and desires of the community in which you live. The guarantee of an education is not a right as defined by the Constitution, but the freedom to pursue one may well be. If a community decides by the majority of its voters that it will provide a public education, then I see nothing wrong with that. However, if another community decides deliberately not to do so because they have some other provision for educating the children of their community, then I would say that the state should not have the right to impose an educational standard on them. But if a community neither votes to provide an education to its children, nor does it have some other educational alternative in place, then I would say that community is shirking its moral responsibility to general preservation of freedom.

mr.72 wrote:Of course it is a right. The freedom to acquire an education is a civil right.

Of course, I assume by the framing of the question, what you really mean to ask is not whether "education" is a "right", but whether "the cost of education" is an "entitlement" for which all taxpayers shall rightfully be burdened through the force of law and threat of imprisonment.

If indeed this is the question you intended to ask, regardless of the misleading terminology of "a right to education", then the answer is that historically, the cost of education has been an entitlement provided by the taxpayer in America and this policy has not been challenged by voters en masse.

And FWIW, the 10th Amendment provides a means by which the people, or the states, may choose to burden themselves with the social welfare of providing a free education. This same 10th Amendment also prohibits the Federal government from enforcing this entitlement, and all other entitlements not enumerated in the Constitution, including health health insurance and about 95% of what the Federal Government does at present.

Geeze... maybe I'm becoming a closet libertarian, because I could not agree more.