Article X, Illinois Constitution

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Article X of the Illinois Constitution is entitled Education and consists of three sections. The Education Article replaced the previous Superintendent of Public Instruction with a State Board of Education, whose members are appointed by the Governor from around the state. It also strengthened the state’s commitment to tax-paid education through high school and continued the 1870 Constitution’s prohibition on use of public funds for religious instruction.

Section 1

Text of Section 1: Goal - Free Schools A fundamental goal of the People of the State is the educational development of all persons to the limits of their capacities. The State shall provide for an efficient system of high quality public educational institutions and services. Education in public schools through the secondary level shall be free. There may be such other free education as the General Assembly provides by law. The State has the primary responsibility for financing the system of public education.

Section 2

Text of Section 2: State Board of Education - Chief State Educational Officer (a) There is created a State Board of Education to be elected or selected on a regional basis. The number of members, their qualifications, terms of office and manner of election or selection shall be provided by law. The Board, except as limited by law, may establish goals, determine policies, provide for planning and evaluating education programs and recommend financing. The Board shall have such other duties and powers as provided by law. (b) The State Board of Education shall appoint a chief state educational officer.

Section 3

Text of Section 3: Public Funds for Sectarian Purposes Forbidden Neither the General Assembly nor any county, city, town, township, school district, or other public corporation, shall ever make any appropriation or pay from any public fund whatever, anything in aid of any church or sectarian purpose, or to help support or sustain any school, academy, seminary, college, university, or other literary or scientific institution, controlled by any church or sectarian denomination whatever; nor shall any grant or donation of land, money, or other personal property ever be made by the State, or any such public corporation, to any church, or for any sectarian purpose.

See also

• State constitution
• Constitutional article
• Constitutional amendment
• Constitutional revision
• Constitutional convention
• Amendments
  • Initiated constitutional amendment
  • Legislatively-referred constitutional amendment
  • Publication requirements for proposed state constitutional amendments
  • Rules about constitutional conventions in state constitutions
  • State constitutional articles governing state legislatures

External links

Suggest a link

• Illinois General Assembly, "Illinois Constitution"
• YouTube, "The Illinois Constitution"
• Illinois Courts Learning Center, "Lesson 2 - The Illinois Constitution"
• Tripod.com, "Illinois Constitution of 1818"

Additional reading

• Illinois State Bar Association, "Understanding the Illinois Constitution"
• Chicago Tribune, "Articles about the Illinois Constitution"