Imagine if John Adams came to testify in a Massachusetts school finance case

Remember the similar language around education in many of the state constitutions across the country? I knew that they had been added over time, but, until I started poking around tonight to catch up on the CCJEF V Rell case in Connecticut, it hadn't hit me just how recently some of them were added:

Sitting in the front row of the crowded courtroom was Judge Simon Bernstein, the 95-year-old author of the education clause that now lies at the heart of the CCJEF appeal.  A delegate at the 1965 Connecticut Constitutional Convention, Judge Bernstein had successfully introduced the education clause and championed its ratification.  Now, some 43 years later, he had filed an amicus brief on behalf of CCJEF and traveled to Hartford to lend his support to the Yale Law students and to make certain that his message was heard by the media and legislators:  The intent of the education clause, he noted, was to ensure schoolchildren a good education, not merely an adequate one.

Well, he would know!
That's from CCJEF's summary of the case. 
You can read Wendy Lecker for the latest updates from the case, including this stunning assertion from the Commissioner of Education for the state: “(l)eadership without money works very well.”