Law Commons^™

Charter School Facilities Funding, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

The equity and adequacy of facilities funding for charter schools (as well as traditional public schools (TPS)) is a topic of hot debate in Arkansas and across the country. Proponents of charters argue that charter schools are burdened due to a lack of facilities funding. Other argue that there are great needs in our TPS districts as well, and that these needs should be met first. This brief describes what facilities funding is currently available to charter schools in Arkansas and what other states are doing that we could possibly leverage here in the Natural State.

Intra-Group Diversity In Education: What If Abigail Fisher Were An Immigrant . . ., Dagmar Rita Myslinska

Pace Law Review

In Part I, this Article briefly describes some aspects of white immigrants’ educational experience (including extracurricular involvement and parental roles), exposing how it reflects immigrants’ lack of access to the cultural capital of native-born whites. The Article exposes some unique challenges faced by Caucasian immigrants in high school, during the college application process, and in taking advantage of college opportunities that amplify social benefits. These experiences are contrasted with those of American-born students who benefit from their families’ access to social capital that enables them to take advantage of its replication in college.

Part II addresses how some of the …

Place, Not Race: Affirmative Action And The Geography Of Educational Opportunity, Sheryll Cashin

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Ultimately, I argue that one important response to the demise of race-based affirmative action should be to incorporate the experience of segregation into diversity strategies. A college applicant who has thrived despite exposure to poverty in his school or neighborhood deserves special consideration. Those blessed to come of age in poverty-free havens do not. I conclude that use of place, rather than race, in diversity programming will better approximate the structural disadvantages many children of color actually endure, while enhancing the possibility that we might one day move past the racial resentment that affirmative action engenders. While I propose substituting …

Restructuring Local School Wellness Policies: Amending The Kids Act To Fight Childhood Obesity, Rebecca Edwalds

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Childhood obesity is a major problem plaguing the United States. Over one-third of children are overweight, and there is little indication that this trend will reverse in the near future. The federal government has attempted to combat childhood obesity through the National School Lunch Act, which regulates the quality of foods federally subsidized schools may serve to children, and provides broad goals for physical activity. These basic goals leave extensive room for states to implement different standards, and they are not sufficient to effectively confront the childhood obesity problem. This Note proposes amendments to the National School Lunch Act that …

The Intersection Of Family Law And Education Law, Debra Chopp

Articles

It is well-established that parents have a fundamental liberty interest in directing the education of their children. As family law practitioners know, however, parents do not always agree with each other on matters pertaining to their child's education. Where education issues arise in family law cases, it is important for members of the family law bar to have familiarity with education laws so that they may properly advise their clients. This article will identify and briefly discuss common intersections of family law and education law.

Missouri’S School Transfer Law: Not A Hancock Violation But A Mere Bandage On Wounded Districts, Kimberly Hubbard

Missouri Law Review

This Note first discusses the Breitenfeld decision and then explores the prior cases and legislation leading up to the Breitenfeld decision. In discussing Breitenfeld, this Note describes how the transfer law will affect transferred students, unaccredited districts forced to pay tuition, accredited districts forced to accept transfer students, and the public school accreditation system in Missouri. Finally, this Note proposes that because the adverse consequences outweigh the benefits of the law, action must be taken so that unaccredited school districts can have a fighting chance to become accredited again. Legislative change is necessary because a solution is not forthcoming from …

Emotional Segregation: Huckleberry Finn In The Modern Classroom, Sharon E. Rush

Sharon E. Rush

This paper explores the harm of teaching The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in public school classrooms. Such harm can be broadly described as emotional segregation, which occurs when society sanctions disrespect. To illustrate the effects of emotional segregation, this article explores the reaction Black students and parents have to the novel to that of White students and parents. White students eagerly imagine being Huck and going on his adventures. Black students, however, cannot and should not even be asked to try to imagine being Huck and betraying their racial identity. But then who are the Black students supposed to identify …

Public School Governance And Cyber Security: School Districts Provide Easy Targets For Cyber Thieves, Michael A. Alao

Michael A. Alao

School districts rely on information systems to a similar extent as private, business organizations, yet the rules and regulations to ensure that school districts maintain adequate security to prevent data breaches and theft have failed to keep pace with private-sector developments. Advances in the private sector include notice-of-breach laws, consumer protection laws limiting individual liability for fraudulent electronic funds transfers, and auditing and reporting of internal controls. The public sector, including school districts, has also made advances in cyber security rules and regulations, but to a more limited extent than the private sector. Because of the sheer number of public …

Traditional Public School And Charter School Funding In Arkansas (Updated), Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

The existence and expansion of charter schools in Arkansas continue to be controversial. Proponents of charters argue that charter schools are unfairly burdened because they do not have access to local property tax revenue. Critics of charters, on the other hand, argue that charter schools pull funding away from traditional public schools. This brief examines the funding of traditional public schools and charter schools across the state and in the particular regions in which most Arkansas charter schools are located.

The 'Compelling Government Interest' In School Diversity: Rebuilding The Case For An Affirmative Government Role, Philip Tegeler

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

How far does Justice Kennedy’s “moral and ethical obligation” to avoid racial isolation extend? Does the obligation flow primarily from Supreme Court case law, does it derive from an evolving consensus in the social sciences, or does it also have a statutory basis in Title VI and other federal law? In addition to its value as a justification for non-individualized, race-conscious remedial efforts by state and local governments, does the compelling interest identified in Parents Involved also suggest an affirmative duty on the part of the federal government? And if so, how far does this affirmative duty extend, and how …

Dark Sarcasm In The Classroom: The Failure Of The Courts To Recognize Students' Severe Emotional Harm As Unconstitutional, Emily Suski

Faculty Publications

Sometimes the very people who are supposed to teach, nurture, and protect students in public schools — the students’ teachers, principals, coaches, and other school officials — are instead the people who harm them. Public school officials have beaten students, causing significant physical harm. They have also left students suffering from depression, suicidal ideation, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. When school officials cause such severe harm to students, all the federal courts of appeals to consider the issue have concluded that the Fourteenth Amendment at least in theory protects them, regardless of whether the form of the harm is emotional or …

Opt-Out Education: School Choice As Racial Subordination, Osamudia R. James

Articles

Despite failure to improve academic outcomes or close the achievement gap, school-choice policies, advanced by education legislation and doctrine, have come to dominate public discourse on public education reform in the United States, with students of color disproportionately enrolling in voucher programs and charter schools. This Article moves past the typical market-based critiques of school choice to analyze the particularly racialized constraints on choice for marginalized students and their families in the public school system. The Article unpacks the blame-placing that occurs when the individualism and independence that school choice and choice rhetoric promote fail to improve academic outcomes, and …

Inhibiting Intrastate Inequalities: A Congressional Approach To Ensuring Equal Opportunity To Finance Public Education, Joshua Arocho

Michigan Law Review

What is the purpose of the international law on armed conflict, and why would opponents bent on destroying each other’s capabilities commit to and obey rules designed to limit their choice of targets, weapons, and tactics? Traditionally, answers to this question have been offered on the one hand by moralists who regard the law as being inspired by morality and on the other by realists who explain this branch of law on the basis of reciprocity. Neither side’s answers withstand close scrutiny. In this Article, we develop an alternative explanation that is based on the principal–agent model of domestic governance. …