John I. Purtle

“ I concur with the majority with the exception that I insist that the right to a free public education is fundamental. Article 14, sec. 1 of the Arkansas Constitution of 1874 clearly mandates the state to provide a free school system to safeguard liberty and provide a bulwark for free and good government. Not to hold that such an education is fundamental is to chip away at the underlying foundation and, indeed, the cornerstone of our present democratic way of life. ”