This article develops the interface between language policy and planning and equal educational opportunity (EEO). Tracing the trajectory of the development "equal educational opportunity" as a normative ideal, this study argues that language policy must serve to promote "actualist" conceptions of EEO. To do this, acquisition planning, as a component of language planning, must respect the first languages of children in school through the provision of multilingual education. Otherwise, EEO is not served. The study uses the complex case of India and its "three-language formula" to explore the interface between language policy and planning as it relates to EEO, noting the possibilities and challenges that this interface raises in the Indian context. (Contains 3 footnotes.)