THEY ARE BEGINNING TO CATCH ON. The use of local funds to finance school districts has long violated principles of horizontal and vertical equity. A Constrained Vision has linked to an interesting lawsuit brought by the Alliance for School Choice (as .pdf).

The legal basis of their case is the fundamental right of parents to control the education of their children, the equal protection guarantee of the 14th Amendment, and Chief Justice Earl Warren's declaration in Brown that "[The opportunity of an education], where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms."They point out that the system of funding schools with property taxes results in fewer resources for students in poorer districts, creating a system of unequal education.

Furthermore, residence-based school assignment allows wealthier families to move into better school districts, but the assignment rules restrict other families from attending those schools. Tax subsidies for buying a new house exacerbate the problem. They add that the state's restrictions on charter schools, including funding them at a lower level than other public schools, also inhibits the freedom of parents to control their children's education.

Libertarians making common cause with egalitarians, forsooth!