Do Constitutional Rights to Education and Healthcare Increase Government Spending?
Simply stated, no.
According to Adam Chilton and Mila Versteeg in a new paper,
In a new paper on the topic, we empirically test whether the inclusion of the right to education and healthcare actually change either government spending or relevant outcomes like school enrollment or life expectancy.
Using a variety of statistical approaches, we consistently find that these rights have no effect: the inclusion of these rights in constitutions are not associated with a statistically significant or substantively meaningful changes in government spending or outcomes.
It should be recognized that constitutional rights are not the same as policies enacted to bring about services. That is what the political will of the electorate is for when deciding on what politicians and policies to support. Enshrining education and healthcare as rights simply makes a point that society values these things, but does not guarantee further action to make them a reality or say anything about how they rank compared to other values that also require funding like defense and infrastructure.