My understanding is that there was no legal grounds for giving every student access to a basic education prior to these amendments. The 13th Amendment gave sla

My understanding is that there was no legal grounds for giving every student access to a basic education prior to these amendments. The 13th Amendment gave slaves rights as citizens. The 14th Amendment gave freedmen and non-assimilating immigrants rights to claim access to public services (including education) where they’d previously been denied. The 15th amendment guaranteed every man a vote in who gets to administer those public services (unfortunately took another 50 years to include women)… fast forward 100 years and LBJ signed Elementary and Secondary Education Act (among other civil rights legislation) because these constitutional rights were being trodded over in the worst of ways. Title I of ESEA set forth a federal tax base to ensure equal access where states (that previously made most policy decisions) could or would not. So that kinda established a good path that led to todays bad outcomes. I work a lot across U.S. K-12, including with large district superintendents, but I am by no means a policy or reform guru so take this with a grain of salt.