Cite as 351 Ark. 31 (2002)
We hold that in this State a constitutionally adequate public education is a fundamental right. In so doing we note that "[t]he right to an adequate education mandated by the constitution is not based on the exclusive needs of a particular individual, but rather is a right held by the public to enforce the State's duty." Claremont I, 138 N.H. at 192, 635 A.2d at 1381.
We emphasize that the fundamental right at issue is the right to a State funded constitutionally adequate public education. It is not the right to horizontal resource replication from school to school and district to district. The substance of the right may be achieved in different schools possessing, for example, differing library resources, teacher-student ratios, computer software, as well as the myriad tools and techniques that may be employed by those in on-site control of the State's public elementary and secondary school systems. But when an individual school or school district offers something less than educational adequacy, the governmental action or lack of action that is the root cause of the disparity will be examined by a standard of strict judicial scrutiny.
Claremont Sch. Dist., 142 N.H. at 473-74, 703 A.2d at 1359. The New Hampshire court then viewed the Rose standards "as benchmarks of a constitutionally adequate public education." Id. at 475, 703 A.2d at 1359. See also Rose v. Council for Better Educ., Inc., supra (holding in 1998 that an adequate education was a fundamental right under its Education Article). Similarly, the Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed an earlier decision in State v. Campbell County Sch. Dist., 19 P.3d 518 (2001), and reiterated that "[b]ecause education is a fundamental right and our citizens are entitled to equal protection under our state constitution, all aspects of the school finance system are subject to strict scrutiny, and statutes establishing the school financing system are not entitled to any presumption of validity." 19 P.3d at 535.
Turning to our authority in Arkansas, the seminal school-funding case, DuPree v. Alma Sch. Dist. No. 30, supra, did not measure the school-funding system against the Education Article but rather did so under the equality provisions of the state constitution. In doing so, this court stated that it was not necessary to decide whether education was a fundamental right because "we can find no constitutional basis for the present system, as it has no rational bearing on the educational needs of the district." DuPree,
