What does the U.S. Constitution say about education?

Big question: "Does the U.S. Constitution guarantee U.S. citizens a free and equal education?"

U.S. Constitution Online had the question posed: "Is there anything in the U.S. Constitution that guarantees its citizens an education? My uncle is being forced to pay for summer school for his children by the New York City Board of Education. Unless he pays, my cousins are going to have to repeat the grade. I see this as an attack on the lower classes, who will obviously have a problem paying for their 'public school' education."

The answer given was: "There is no enumerated constitutional right to an education. A state constitution may include such a right, but I doubt that being required to pay for education would be considered a violation of that right. The problem with something like your uncle's situation is that, to be blunt, if a child does not apply himself enough during the school year to pass from one grade to the next, is it the school's responsibility to pay for that child to have remedial classes to move along? I suspect not; after all, if your uncle does not wish to pay, the kids could just repeat the grade for free." Source: http://www.usconstitution.net/constfaq_a4.htm

Since the Constitution does not mention education directly, what is an educational right has to be determined by interpreting parts of the Constitution that deal with protection of individual rights such as the 14th Amendment and U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

To study this topic, use the following internet sources:

U.S. Supreme Court education cases at:
www.law.cornell.edu/supct/cases/topics/tog_education.html/

Landmark education cases at: www.landmarkcases.org/brown/home.html/

Scenarios of landmark cases (excellent source of case studies or simulations) at:
http://cte.jhu.edu/techacademy/fellows/Walston/supreme/supremecourt/supremecourt.html/

Google Election Tools for Teachers at: www.google.com/educators/elections_tools.html