elderly.[15] Of the three, only the clause dealing with helping the needy contains the mandatory “shall,” although it then gives the Legislature the discretion to determine “from time to time” how the help to those it classifies as needy is to be provided. There is no discretion, however, in the statement, “The legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a system of free common schools, wherein all the children of this state may be educated” (article XI, § 1). The only discretion is in the hands of parents who do not have to send their children to public schools. Since education is the most important responsibility of the State, it follows, a priori, that building schools that provide children with a sound education is more important than building jails to incarcerate criminals, shelters to house the homeless, and low income housing for the poor. This order of priorities recognizes that a child who has an opportunity for a sound education is less likely to become a criminal or be homeless. Sound Basic Education Equals A High School Education Throughout this litigation, the State has ferociously clung to the argument that a sound basic education consists of the ability to read, write, and do math at a rudimentary level.[16] Since these skills are generally acquired by the eighth or ninth grade, the State then argues that this is the constitutional minimum.[17] The view of the State is essentially that of the concurring opinion of Judge Levine in Campaign for Fiscal Equity v State ([ CFE I], , 86 NY2d 307 (/nyctap-cgi/nyctap.cgi?86+307), 316 [1995]), who concluded that “what legitimately might be called an education are the basic literacy (reading and writing) and computational skills and, in a public educational system, citizenship awareness. A public educational system failing to provide the opportunity to acquire those basic skills would not be worthy of that appellation” (id. at 331). Judge Levine disagreed with the holding of the majority that a sound “education should consist of the basic literacy, calculating, and verbal skills necessary to enable children to eventually function productively as civic participants capable of voting and serving on a jury” ( id. at 316). The majority in CFE I also stated that this definition did not “definitively specify what the constitutional concept and mandate of a sound basic education entails,” which would take place “after discovery and development of a factual record” ( id. 317). At this point, the discovery has taken place, and the factual record has been developed. The record establishes what would strike many as an obvious truth: A high school education is today as indispensable as a primary education was in 1894.[18] Children in the 21st century