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Full-Text Articles in Law
Leveling Localism And Racial Inequality In Education Through The No Child Left Behind Act Public Choice Provision, Erika K. Wilson
Leveling Localism And Racial Inequality In Education Through The No Child Left Behind Act Public Choice Provision, Erika K. Wilson
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
School district boundary lines play a pivotal role in shaping students' educational opportunities. Living on one side of a school district boundary rather than another can mean the difference between being able to attend a high-achieving resource-enriched school or having to attend a low-achieving resource-deprived school. Despite the prominent role that school district boundary lines play in dictating educational opportunities for students, remedies formulated by the federal judiciary-the institution frequently looked upon to address issues of school segregation and inequality-are ineffective in ameliorating disparities between school districts. They are ineffective because the federal judiciary evidences a doctrinal preference for localism …
A Narrow Path To Diversity: The Constitutionality Of Rezoning Plans And Strategic Site Selection Of Schools After Parents Involved, Steven T. Collis
A Narrow Path To Diversity: The Constitutionality Of Rezoning Plans And Strategic Site Selection Of Schools After Parents Involved, Steven T. Collis
Michigan Law Review
Justice Kennedy's concurrence in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District Number 1 raised an important and timely constitutional issue: whether the Constitution permits K-12 public school districts not under existing desegregation orders to use site selection of new schools or rezoning plans to achieve racial diversity. Numerous scholars and journalists have interpreted Justice Kennedy's concurrence as explicitly answering the question in the affirmative. This Note argues that the opposite is true. Justice Kennedy's past jurisprudence, as well as his language in Parents Involved, favors the use of strict scrutiny. Indeed, in Parents Involved, Justice Kennedy …
Locked In Inequality: The Persistence Of Discrimination, Daria Roithmayr
Locked In Inequality: The Persistence Of Discrimination, Daria Roithmayr
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
In this Article, the author argues that the practice of charging school fees to attend public school is an example of locked-in discrimination that persists over time, even in the absence of intentional discrimination. Exploring the lock-in model of discrimination in the unique context of South Africa, Roithmayr makes two central points. First, discriminatory practices often become locked into institutional structures because high switching costs-the costs of moving from a discriminatory practice to an inclusive one—make it too difficult for an institution to discontinue discriminating. Even when institutional actors are fully committed to eradicating racial disparity, they may be constrained …
School Finance Adequacy As Vertical Equity, Julie K. Underwood
School Finance Adequacy As Vertical Equity, Julie K. Underwood
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
In this Article, Dean Underwood explains that school finance cases can be divided into three waves of reform. The first wave involved efforts to use the Federal Equal Protection Clause to overturn financing systems. Litigants in the second wave turned to state equal protection and due process clauses. Finally, the third wave involved the utilization of education clauses in state constitutions as the predominant litigation vehicle. These three waves embody two primary approaches to school finance litigation. The first approach involves a challenge to the adequacy of a state's funding system under either the state or federal equal protection clause, …
Establishing Education Program Inadequacy: The Alabama Example, Martha I. Morgan, Adam S. Cohen, Helen Hershkoff
Establishing Education Program Inadequacy: The Alabama Example, Martha I. Morgan, Adam S. Cohen, Helen Hershkoff
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The authors draw on their experience as attorneys for a statewide class of plaintiff school children in the liability phase of ongoing public education reform litigation in Alabama to demonstrate the availability of state and nationally recognized standards concerning educational resources (inputs) and results (outputs) that can serve as evidentiary tools for assessing and for establishing a state public education system's failure to satisfy constitutional mandates of educational adequacy. The Article discusses the usefulness and limitations of using such standards as a starting point in a court's constitutional analysis. It suggests an integrated approach that links input and output standards …
Accelerated Education As A Remedy For High-Poverty Schools, William H. Clune
Accelerated Education As A Remedy For High-Poverty Schools, William H. Clune
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
High-poverty schools, and the students who attend them, have historically faced substantial challenges in providing and receiving, adequate education. Despite some relief from the courts, school finance remedies that require the redistribution of monetary aid to low-wealth districts have encountered strong political opposition. In this Article, Professor Clune makes a renewed claim for accelerated education as the primary focus of adequacy litigation in school reform cases. He describes the nation's educational condition, in which there exists a disturbing correlation between poverty and low educational outcomes. He then drafts a vision of a comprehensive, school reform remedy, one that emphasizes institutional …
Achieving Equity And Excellence In Kentucky Education, C. Scott Trimble, Andrew C. Forsaith
Achieving Equity And Excellence In Kentucky Education, C. Scott Trimble, Andrew C. Forsaith
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
In this Article, Trimble and Forsaith discuss the landmark Kentucky school finance case, Rose v. Council for Better Education, 790 S.W.2d 186 (Ky. 1989), and the school reform efforts it spawned. In Council for Better Education, the Kentucky Supreme Court held that the state had failed its duty under the state constitution to provide all students with an adequate education, which it defined in terms of seven categories of knowledge and skills students should acquire. The State General Assembly responded with the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA), which significantly boosted state funding as well as established an ambitious accountability system …
Oklahoma School Finance Litigation: Shifting From Equity To Adequacy, Mark S. Grossman
Oklahoma School Finance Litigation: Shifting From Equity To Adequacy, Mark S. Grossman
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Article traces the history of Oklahoma school finance litigation from the initial challenge based on funding inequity to a recent lawsuit founded on alleged constitutional inadequacies in the state system. Although the legal challenge based on funding inequity was unsuccessful in the courts, the pendency of the suit helped push the state legislature toward some reforms. The threat of a new lawsuit based on alleged inadequacies in the state school system, together with a serious funding shortfall, propelled a comprehensive education reform plan through the state legislature in 1990. The association of local school boards that led the equity …
When Honesty Is "Simply…Impractical" For The Supreme Court: How The Constitution Came To Require Busing For School Racial Balance, Lino A. Graglia
When Honesty Is "Simply…Impractical" For The Supreme Court: How The Constitution Came To Require Busing For School Racial Balance, Lino A. Graglia
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Swann's Way: The School Busing Case and the Supreme Court by Bernard Schwartz
The Burden Of Brown: Thirty Years Of School Desegregation, Michigan Law Review
The Burden Of Brown: Thirty Years Of School Desegregation, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
A Review of The Burden of Brown: Thirty Years of School Desegregation by Raymond Wolters
Constitutional Law-Judcial Powers-State Taxpayer Denied Standing As Party In Interest In Bible Reading Case, Frank M. Bowen, Jr. S.Ed.
Constitutional Law-Judcial Powers-State Taxpayer Denied Standing As Party In Interest In Bible Reading Case, Frank M. Bowen, Jr. S.Ed.
Michigan Law Review
Plaintiffs sought a judgment to declare unconstitutional a New Jersey statute which required the reading of five verses of the Old Testament at the opening of each day in the public schools. Plaintiffs contended that the practice under the statute was an "establishment of religion" prohibited by the First Amendment and applicable to the several states through the "due process" clause of the Fourteenth Amendment Both plaintiffs were taxpayers of New Jersey, and one was also the parent of a child who had attended a public school, but had left school before the appeal was taken. The Supreme Court of …