Law Commons^™

Restoring Student Press Freedoms: Why Every State Needs A 'New Voices' Law, Clare R. Norins, Taran Harmon-Walker, Navroz Tharani

Scholarly Works

Scholastic journalists across America have long provided vital reporting, commentary, and fresh perspective on issues of public concern to their readers. Never has this been more true than in the current age of dwindling print media, where scholastic journalists at both the high school and post-secondary levels are stepping in to populate what would otherwise be news deserts. Yet the Supreme Court’s decision in Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, 484 U.S. 260 (1988), allows school officials to censor both the content and style of school-sponsored media without offending the First Amendment. This essay traces the history of student speech rights …

Private Schools' Role And Rights In Setting Vaccination Policy: A Constitutional And Statutory Puzzle, Hillel Y. Levin

Scholarly Works

Measles and other vaccine-preventable childhood diseases are making a comeback, as a growing number of parents are electing not to vaccinate their children. May private schools refuse admission to these students? This deceptively simple question raises complex issues of First Amendment law and statutory interpretation, and it also has implications for other current hot-button issues in constitutional law, including whether private schools may discriminate against LGBTQ students. This Article is the first to address the issue of private schools’ rights to exclude unvaccinated children. It finds that the answer is “it depends.” It also offers a model law that states …

Federal Financing Of Higher Education At A Crossroads: The Evolution Of The Student Loan Debt Crisis And The Reauthorization Of The Higher Education Act Of 1965, Camilla E. Watson

Scholarly Works

Currently, there are 44.2 million Americans holding student loan debt collectively totaling $1.5 trillion. This massive debt has a profound effect, not only on the lives of the debtors, but also on the national economy because it prevents the debtors from buying homes and cars and creating new businesses. This debt is also speculated to be a likely trigger for the next housing bubble because student loans, like the subprime mortgage loans underlying the 2008 financial crisis, are securitized and sold to investors. But many of those with student loans struggle to find jobs that will enable them to pay …

The Future Of Lower-Income Students In Higher Education: Rethinking The Pell Program And Federal Tax Incentives, Camilla E. Watson

Scholarly Works

As the costs of higher education have soared, the value of Pell grants has declined, making it more difficult for lower-income students to obtain an education without being hopelessly mired in debt. This article traces the evolution of the Pell program and discusses the diametrically opposed proposals of Presidents Obama and Trump to reform federal funding for higher education. The article proposes an alternative plan that would require a redirection of a portion of the funds from the Pell program and a reshuffling of the current tax incentives for higher education. The advantages of this proposal are that it would …

Reforming The Tax Incentives For Higher Education, Camilla E. Watson

Scholarly Works

Federal spending on higher education has long been controversial, primarily because it has grown exponentially since the 1950s but it has produced a system which many regard as too expensive and grossly inefficient. The soaring costs are placing higher education beyond the reach of many Americans, and of those who enter college, less than half complete their degrees. Particular criticism has been directed toward the education tax incentives, enacted mostly in the late 1990s, which shifted federalfunding for higher education from direct benefits to students in the form of grants, loans and work-study programs to indirect benefits through the tax …

The Real Danger Of Guns In Schools, Sonja R. West

Popular Media

This article that first appeared at Slate.com on March 22, 2016, looks at Georgia's "Campus Carry" Legislation. This legislation permits "any [firearm] license holder when he or she is in or on any building or real property owned by or leased to any public technical school, vocational school, college, university, or other institution of postsecondary education."

Schools Fail To Get It Right On Rap Music, Andrea L. Dennis

Popular Media

School officials treat rap music as a serious threat to the school environment. Fear and misunderstanding of, as well as bias against, this highly popular and lucrative musical art form negatively shape their perspectives on this vital aspect of youth culture.

As a result, students who express themselves through rap music in a way that challenges the schoolhouse setting risk the possibility of suspension, permanent exclusion and referral to the criminal justice system.

The ongoing case of Taylor Bell is the latest and most complex battleground on which this issue is playing out.

Student Press Exceptionalism, Sonja R. West

Scholarly Works

Constitutional protection for student speakers is an issue that has been hotly contested for almost 50 years. Several commentators have made powerful arguments that theCourt has failed to sufficiently protect the First Amendment rights of all students. But this debate has overlooked an even more troubling reality about the current state ofexpressive protection for student — the especially harmful effect of the Court’s precedents on student journalists. Under the Court’s jurisprudence, schools may regulate with far greater breadth and ease the speech of student journalists than of their non-press classmates. Schools are essentially free to censor the student press even …

Tax Credit Scholarship Programs And The Changing Ecology Of Public Education, Hillel Y. Levin

Scholarly Works

The traditional model of public education continues to be challenged by advocates of school choice. Typically associated with charter schools, magnet schools, and tuition voucher programs, these advocates have recently introduced a new school choice plan, namely tax credit scholarship programs. More than a dozen states have adopted such programs, and hundreds of millions of dollars are now diverted each year from public programs to private schools. These programs are poorly understood and under-studied by legal scholars. This Article assesses the place of these programs within the ecology of public education, considers the fundamentally different approaches states have taken to …

Sanctionable Conduct: How The Supreme Court Stealthily Opened The Schoolhouse Gate, Sonja R. West

Scholarly Works

The Supreme Court's decision in Morse v. Frederick signaled that public school authority over student expression extends beyond the schoolhouse gate. This authority may extend to any activity in which a student participates that the school has officially sanctioned. The author argues that this decision is unsupported by precedent, and could encourage schools to sanction more events in the future. Because the Court failed to limit or define the power of a school to sanction an activity, the decision could have a chilling effect on even protected student expression. The author commends the Court for taking up this issue after …

Race-Conscious Student Assignment Plans After Parents Involved: Bringing State Action Principles To Bear On The De Jure/De Facto Distinction, Michael Wells

Scholarly Works

In Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, a sharply divided Supreme Court struck down two race-conscious school assignment plans aimed at achieving greater racial integration of the public schools. Taking Parents Involved as a starting point, this Article looks ahead to the future of litigation over student assignment plans. By striking down the Seattle and Louisville plans, the decision may "require hundreds of school districts to rethink race-based policies that they use voluntarily to desegregate schools." At the very least, the 5-4 ruling almost certainly did not put an end to race-conscious integration plans or …

Blood And Turnips In School Funding Litigation, John Dayton, Anne Proffitt Dupre

Scholarly Works

There are always winners and losers in school funding reforms, which often leads to protracted litigation in these cases. School funding reforms directly affect tax burdens, the distribution of resources, and the allocation of educational opportunities. Competition over limited resources is inevitable. Although win-win scenarios are ideal, they are not likely in school funding disputes. Limited resources generally make school funding reforms a zero-sum game, with significant systemic changes redefining who wins and loses under the new system.

After the initial exuberance that occurs with a court victory, reform advocates must still face the challenge of translating their court victory …

The Spirit Of Serrano: Past, Present And Future, Anne Dupre, John Dayton

Scholarly Works

A decades-long school funding revolution continues in the United States. The litigation sparked by the Supreme Court of California's 1971 decision in Serrano v. Priest continues to reshape the legal, political, and educational landscape in the United States, affecting the lives of children, parents, educators, and taxpayers throughout the nation. Serrano-inspired lawsuits have transformed school funding policies nationwide, resulting in billions of dollars in new funding and a notable redistribution of resources among school districts. Serrano-inspired litigation has changed public schools in many states to a degree second only to the transformation that followed Brown v. Board of …

Commentary: Grades- Achievement, Attendance, Or Attitude, Anne Dupre, John Dayton

Scholarly Works

This article addresses the impact that grades can have on the lives of students and discusses what grades actually represent in terms of student achievement. It also addresses disputes involving grading policies that allowed non-academic factors in decisions on grades or academic credit. The article includes a brief summary of the history and legal theories related to grading challenges and then provides a review of the relevant case law including Board of Curators of the University of Missouri v. Horowitz, Barnard v. Inhabitants of Shelburne, Tinker v. Des Moines, Goss v. Lopez, Knight v. Board of education, Gutierrez v. School …

School Funding Litigation: Who's Winning The War?, John Dayton, Anne Proffitt Dupre

Scholarly Works

This Article examines how the landscape of school funding litigation has changed over the three decades since Serrano and Rodriguez. The first part of the Article sets forth the history of school funding litigation since Serrano and Rodriguez and unravels the legal theories that have driven the school financing cases, explaining past dispositions and point out likely future trends. At first blush it would appear that the attorneys seeking social change through greater equity in school funding are litigating similar issues in each state. Yet judges have approached these matters from different directions with results that vary significantly from state …

Education Finance Litigation: A Review Of Recent High Court Decisions And Their Likely Impact On Future Litigation, Anne Dupre, John Dayton, Christine Kiracofe

Scholarly Works

This article addresses the impact that school funding litigation has had in shaping public schools across the United States. It serves as an update to a 2001 article titled Serrano and It’s Progeny: An Analysis of 30 Years of School Funding Litigation, which reviewed school funding litigation since the Serrano v. Priest decision. This article updates that research by providing brief reviews of the most recent and significant school funding litigation decisions, including the most recent decisions in Claremont v. Governor, James v. Alabama Coalition for Equality, Tennessee Small School Systems v. McWhorter, Lake View v. Huckabee, DeRolph v. …

Freedom Of Religion In Public Schools In Germany And In The United States, Inke Muehlhoff

LLM Theses and Essays

Unfortunately, in terms of religions, the strict neutrality is almost impossible to reach and most countries that have adopted such a principle still face religious conflicts. However, these conflicts have shifted from armed conflicts to legal conflicts and battles of words, which offer at least a more peaceful way to fight. One major battleground for these religious conflicts concerns the role of religion in the public school system. That battleground is the subject of this thesis. The discussion of how religion should be treated in the public school system will be based on a comparison between Germany and the United …

Disability, Deference, And The Integrity Of The Academic Enterprise, Anne Proffitt Dupre

Scholarly Works

Congress has established a complex set of laws regarding the education of disabled students. This Article discusses the obligations the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act impose on schools and focuses on how courts interpreting these statutes address the decisions of educators regarding how best to educate disabled students. Professor Dupre brings to light a striking contrast between how courts regard the decisions of educators in higher education as opposed to the decisions of educators in primary and secondary schools, routinely according the former considerable deference while often …

Equal Protection Of The Laws: Recent Judicial Decisions And Their Implications For Public Educational Institutions, Anne Dupre, John Dayton

Scholarly Works

This article reviews recent judicial decisions concerning the Equal Protection Clause and provides an analysis of their implications for public educational institutions. The article begins by giving a brief historical overview of the Equal Protection Clause, its application to the states, and describes the three-tiered approach to challenges alleging government denial of equal protection of the laws. Recent applications of each tier are addressed by discussing Adarand v. Pena, Hopwood v. Texas, U.S. v. Virginia, and Romer v. Evans. The article concludes by noting that these recent cases have added to uncertainty concerning the Court’s interpretation of the Equal …

Should Students Have Constitutional Rights? Keeping Order In The Public Schools, Anne Proffitt Dupre

Scholarly Works

This Article focuses on how the Supreme Court's conception of the public school as either an institution of social reproduction or reconstruction, a conflict Professor Dupre maintains is deeply rooted in intellectual history, has affected the power that public schools have been afforded in matters of discipline and order. Professor Dupre argues that the Court -- by allowing the reconstruction model to influence its opinion for almost thirty years -- paved the way for the decline in school order and educational quality. Although Professor Dupre contends that the Court's recent repudiation of the reconstruction model in Vernonia School District 47J …

Wanted: A Strict Contractual Approach To The Private University/Student Relationship, Rebecca H. White

Scholarly Works

Institutions of higher education command and receive considerable respect in our society. An apparent corollary of this revered status is the deference accorded colleges and universities by the courts. This deferential attitude is brought into sharp focus when a contractual dispute arises between a private university and one of its students.

It is well settled that the private university/student relationship is contractual in nature. Educational contracts, however, are regarded as possessing unique features that require special consideration; a construction which preserves schools' broad discretionary powers is often viewed as essential. Thus, courts have refused to invoke a strict contractual approach …

School Desegregation -- Failure To Revamp Segregated School District Attenuates The Milliken V. Bradley Barrier To Federal Interdistrict Remedies United States V. Missouri, 515 F.2d 1365 (8th Cir.), Cert. Denied, 96 S. Ct. 374 (1975), James C. Smith

Scholarly Works

Kinloch School District, small and all-black, adjoins the predominantly white Berkeley and Ferguson-Florissant School Districts in St. Louis County, Missouri. Kinloch and Berkeley had comprised one district until 1937, when they split along racial lines. In 1971 the United States, pursuant to Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the fourteenth amendment, commenced a school desegregation action against the State of Missouri, the State and county boards of education, the three school districts, and several public officials. The district court concluded that all the defendants had unlawfully maintained Kinloch as a racially segregated school district. After reviewing …

The Principle Of Nondivisiveness And The Constitutionality Of Public Aid To Parochial Schools, C. Ronald Ellington

Scholarly Works

The establishment clause issues in the three cases now before the Supreme Court [Tilton v. Richardson, Lemon v. Kurtzman, DiCenso v. Robinison] will be explored in this article in the light of a postulate and three derivative maxims which, it is suggested, are implicit in the Court's earlier religion clause cases, particularly Walz v. Tax Commission. It is the author's view that the establishment clause intends that government no be a divisive force in matters of religion and that analysis grounded in such a premise provides the surest delineation of the interests at stake in …