Statute

Statutes, in their most basic form, are the written laws that govern our daily lives and operations. These laws are written by legislative bodies at the state and federal levels, and, in the United States, are the most fundamental source of law. In its Latin root, statute is derived from the meaning of “it is decided.” Thus, statutes reflect the decisions of law-making groups at various levels and may be based on long-standing customs or new groundbreaking changes. Although the legislatures of state or federal governments actually propose (as bills) and write statutes, the government's system of checks and balances allows the executive, legislative, and judicial branches to all have a hand in the development of the laws that govern everyday life. A bill sponsored by a legislator can be passed into law as a statute, which is then approved by the chief officer of the executive branch (the president of the United States or the governor of any state). From that point, judges interpret these laws as to their constitutionality and implementation.

All statutes are subject to interpretation by members of the judicial branch of government (i.e., the courts), and statutes put into place by a legislature can be found to be unconstitutional by a judicial body and then revoked. In essence, then, statutes are written by legislative bodies but are then interpreted by judicial bodies. In some cases, a statute might contain vague or unclear terminology that the courts must decipher for practical purposes. Additionally, statutes can be modified or even rescinded by the same legislative body that established them. Statutes can also expire if such terms are written into the statute itself, or laws may be passed that automatically cancel a statute that has not been explicitly reauthorized by the legislature. Thus, although they represent binding law, statutes are neither permanent nor unalterable.

Because they are published in written form for use by such parties as citizens, lawyers, and judicial bodies, a group of statutes is typically organized by topic and published in volumes referred to as codes. Federal statutes compose the United States Code and are organized by topic into 50 sections called Titles; these Titles cover all areas of legal specificity including bankruptcy (Title 11), census (Title 13), education (Title 20), food and drug (Title 21), labor (Title 29), money and finance (Title 30), and war and national defense (Title 50). Most state codes are also divided by general subject areas such as a probate code (laws regarding wills, trusts, and other aspects of probate), education code (including but not limited to personnel, contracts, programs, discipline, organization of schools, school finance), family code (marriage, divorce, and child welfare issues), and criminal or penal code (violent crimes and punishments). The specific types of codes vary distinctly by state. The state of Texas, for example, publishes its state laws into 31 different codes, which can be purchased in book format or accessed online.

Insofar as education is a power granted to the states by virtue of the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, statutes governing public schools are written and applied by state legislatures. Even the power of school districts to exist and operate must be granted by state statute or constitution, either explicit or implied. The degree of specificity regarding public schools found in statutes varies among states, with some being very specific in terms of what powers are expressly written and others being far more general. Still, federal statutes do have implications for public schools, even though education is a state responsibility. For this reason, most of the federal statutes influencing public education are carried out as part of the General Welfare Clause found in Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, which grants the U.S. [Page 791]Congress the power to “pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States.” This clause grants the federal government the power to tax and spend monies for the general welfare of the country, which includes educational purposes. Any school or district that receives federal funds is thus bound by federal guidelines and statutes.

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