Constitutional Educational Justice a Review on Education Budget: Nowadays Challenges

Abstract

The constitutional guarantee of the right to education occupies a central position within the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia, particularly through Chapter XA on Human Rights and Article 31, which affirms both the entitlement to education and the State’s obligation to organize a national education system. This paper examines Indonesia’s contemporary educational challenges through a constitutional lens, emphasizing the normative force of the 20 percent education budget mandate and its judicial enforcement by the Constitutional Court. Despite this clear constitutional framework, Indonesia continues to face four fundamental and persistent problems in its education sector: high dropout rates, limited inclusivity for persons with disabilities, a structural mismatch between educational outcomes and labor market demands, and inconsistent fulfillment of constitutional budgetary obligations.

The study adopts a normative juridical method, using statutes, Constitutional Court decisions, and legal doctrines including Hans Kelsen’s theory of norm validity, L.M. Friedman’s legal system framework, and Mochtar Kusumaatmadja’s Development Law Theory to analyze the effectiveness of education governance and fiscal policy. Central Constitutional Court decisions, including 026/PUU-IV/2006, 24/PUU-V/2007, 5/PUU-X/2012, and 3/PUU-XXII/2024, demonstrate the Court’s consistent role in safeguarding educational rights and correcting deviations in budgetary policy. These rulings affirm that the 20 percent allocation is not merely symbolic but a binding obligation integral to achieving substantive equality and preventing commercialization or discrimination in education.