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Full-Text Articles in First Amendment
Charter Schools, The Establishment Clause, And The Neoliberal Turn In Public Education, Aaron J. Saiger
Charter Schools, The Establishment Clause, And The Neoliberal Turn In Public Education, Aaron J. Saiger
Faculty Scholarship
Regardless whether the American charter school can improve academic performance and provide effective alternatives to traditional public schools, its steady entrenchment as an institution portends significant, destabilizing changes across education law. In no area will its impact be more profound than the law of religion and schooling. Despite the general view that charter schools are public schools, charters’ neoliberal character — they are privately created and managed, and chosen by consumers in a marketplace — makes them private schools for Establishment Clause purposes, notwithstanding their public subsidy. This conclusion, which rests in substantial part on the Zelman v. Simmons-Harris vouchers …