In Brown v. Board of Educ., the United States Supreme Court recognized that "education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments." However, despite this declaration of policy, the Court has not played an affirmative role in assuring that all children have equal education opportunity, regardless of economic or social status. The rest of the federal government has been equally uninterested in enforcing the policy so clearly enunciated in Brown. Unfortunately, Illinois government has done no more than its federal counterpart to ensure that its citizens have equal educational opportunities. This article analyzes federal and Illinois case history on educational opportunity, and focuses on recent litigation that has attempted to establish, at long last, that the equal protection clause entitles all children to equal educational opportunity.