Education is NOT a Constitutional Duty in Massachusetts

Despite the claim of the Massachusetts Supreme Court in McDuffy v. Secretary of the Executive, 415 Mass. 545 (1993) that the state constitution imposes a duty upon the Legislatures and magistrates to educate the populace, it is not true. The Court failed to take into consideration the entire instrument when interpreting a phrase. "A duty . . . to cherish the interests of literature" (Pt. II, Chapt. V, Sec. II, MA Const. 1780) must be considered along side with "the exclusive right" of "the several towns, parishes, precincts, and other bodies politic, or religious societies" to "elect[ing] their public Teachers, and contract[ing] with them for their support and maintenance" "at all times." (Pt. I, Art. III, MA Const. 1780) To consider one isolated phrase without reference the other pertinent sections is not only inappropriate, but quite dishonest.

Government.--Representative government goes back to 1634, and the bicameral legislature to 1644. The constitution of 1780, which still endures (the only remaining state constitution of the 18th century), was framed in the main by Samuel Adams, and as an embodiment of colonial experience and revolutionary principles, and as a model of constitution-making in the early years of independence, is of very great historical interest. It has been amended with considerable freedom (37 amendments up to 1907), but with more conservatism than has often prevailed in the constitutional reform of other states; so that the constitution of Massachusetts is not so completely in harmony with modern democratic sentiment as are the public opinion and statute law of the state. The commonwealth, for example, is still denominated "sovereign," and education is not declared a constitutional duty of the commonwealth.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica, eleventh edition (1911)

New Hampshire Politics

P.O. Box 1120
Merrimack, NH 03054

Full T1 direct Internet Backbone connection and Internet Services
provided by Mainstream EIS