Law Commons^™

Gentrification And Urban Public School Reforms: The Interest Divergence Dillema, Erika Wilson

Erika K. Wilson

Across the country cities are experiencing rapid increases in gentrification: the influx of middle-class, often white residents, into cities with large minority populations. In some gentrifying cities, significant numbers of white middle-class residents are enrolling their children in city public schools, reversing a long standing trend of white flight out of city schools. Local officials value the renewed interest in public schools by these residents because it represents an opportunity to keep them, and their tax dollars, from fleeing to the suburbs once they have school aged children. This Article chronicles the ways in which local officials in gentrifying cities …

Equal Educational Opportunity By The Numbers: The Warren Court's Empirical Legacy, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

No abstract provided.

The Court Vs. Educational Standards, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

No abstract provided.

The 2006 Winthrop And Frances Lane Lecture: The Unintended Legal And Policy Consequences Of The No Child Left Behind Act, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

No abstract provided.

State Constitutions, School Finance Litigation, And The "Third Wave": From Equity To Adequacy, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

No abstract provided.

Schoolhouses, Courthouses, And Statehouses: Educational Finance, Constitutional Structure, And The Separation Of Powers Doctrine, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

No abstract provided.

Goals 2000: Educate America Act: The Federalization And Legalization Of Educational Policy, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

No abstract provided.

An Empirical And Constitutional Analysis Of Racial Ceilings And Public Schools, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

No abstract provided.

Courting Trouble: Litigation, High-Stakes Testing, And Education Policy, Michael R. Heise

Michael Heise

High-stakes testing policies did not emerge in an education policy vacuum. Part I of this Article includes a brief description of the major high-stakes tests and their policy rationales. Part II surveys recent litigation challenging one distinct genre of high-stakes testing-high school exit exams. Two cases illustrate courts' current posture toward legal challenges of exit exams. Part III reviews evidence of courts' increased sensitivity to the policy consequences attributable to court decisions that interfere with the implementation of exit exams. Part IV concludes and notes the important normative questions raised by judges' concerns with policy consequences flowing from their decisions.

The Courts, Educational Policy, And Unintended Consequences, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

Recent school finance litigation illustrates yet again how law can generate unintended policy consequences. Seeking to improve student achievement and school accountability, more states now turn to educational standards and assessments. At the same time, a multi-decade school finance litigation effort develops and changes its theoretical base. Recently, educational standards and school finance litigation converged in a way that enables school districts to gain financially from their inability to meet desired achievement levels. Specifically, courts increasingly allow litigants and lawsuits to transform standards and assessments into constitutional entitlements to additional resources. As a consequence, increased legal and financial exposure for …

Public Funds, Private Schools, And The Court: Legal Issues And Policy Consequences, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

No abstract provided.

Judicial Decision-Making, Social Science Evidence, And Equal Educational Opportunity: Uneasy Relations And Uncertain Futures, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

No abstract provided.

Equal Educational Opportunity, Hollow Victories, And The Demise Of School Finance Equity Theory: An Empirical Perspective And Alternative Explanation, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

Professor Heise reports findings from his on-going empirical study of judicial impact in the school finance context. The study employs interrupted time series analyses to explore the independent effect of successful school finance equity court decisions on two key outcome variables, centralization and total educational spending levels. The results cast some doubt about long-held assumptions regarding the efficacy of court decisions. The author argues that the results also uncover important clues that help explain the recent fundamental shift in school finance litigation theory from equity to adequacy.

Educational Jujitsu: How School Finance Lawyers Learned To Turn Standards And Accountability Into Dollars, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

No abstract provided.

Equal Educational Opportunity By The Numbers: The Warren Court's Empirical Legacy, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

By drawing upon empirical social science evidence to inform a core tenet of the Court's understanding of equal education the Warren Court established one of its enduring - if under-appreciated - legacies: The increased empiricization of the equal educational opportunity doctrine. All three major subsequent legal efforts to restructure public schools and equalize educational opportunities among students - post-Brown school desegregation, finance, and choice litigation - evidence an increasingly empiricized equal educational opportunity doctrine. If my central claim is correct, it becomes important to consider the consequences of this development. I consider two in this Article and find both benefits …

Religion, School, And Judicial Decision Making: An Empirical Perspective, Michael Heise, Gregory C. Sisk

Michael Heise

We analyze various influences on judicial outcomes favoring religion in cases involving elementary and secondary schools and decided by lower federal courts. A focus on religion in the school context is warranted as the most difficult and penetrating questions about the proper relationship between Church and State have arisen with special frequency, controversy, and fervor in the often-charged atmosphere of education. Schools and the Religion Clauses collide persistently, and litigation frames many of these collisions. Also, the frequency and magnitude of these legal collisions increase as various policy initiatives increasingly seek to leverage private and religious schools in the service …

Assessing The Efficacy Of School Desegregation, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

No abstract provided.

Are Single-Sex Schools Inherently Unequal?, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

No abstract provided.

No Lawsuit Left Behind, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

No abstract provided.

Equal Educational Opportunity And Constitutional Theory: Preliminary Thoughts On The Role Of School Choice And The Autonomy Principle, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

Inadequate schools impede America's long-standing quest for greater equal educational opportunity. The equal educational opportunity doctrine, traditionally moored in terms of race, has expanded to include notions of educational adequacy. Educational adequacy is frequently construed in terms of educational spending and framed in terms largely incident to constitutional litigation. This paper explores the potential intersections of the school choice and school finance movements, particularly as they relate to litigation and policy. The paper argues that school choice policies constitute a viable remedy for successful school finance litigation and form a remedy that simultaneously advances individual autonomy, one critical constitutional principle.

Litigated Learning, Law's Limits, And Urban School Reform Challenges, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

This Article assesses the likely efficacy of litigation efforts seeking to enhance equal educational opportunity by improving student academic achievement in the nation's urban public schools. Past education reform litigation efforts focusing on school desegregation and finance met with mixed success. Current litigation efforts seeking to improve student academic achievement promise to be even less successful because student academic achievement involves variables and activities located further from the reach of litigation than such variables as a school's racial composition and per pupil spending levels. Moreover, efforts to improve student achievement in the nation's urban public schools--especially high poverty schools--face additional …

The Political Economy Of School Choice, Michael Heise, James E. Ryan

Michael Heise

This paper examines the political economy of school choice and focuses in particular on the role of suburbanites. This group, which we contend is the most important and powerful stakeholder in choice debates, has yet to receive much attention in the commentary. It turns out that suburbanites, by and large, are not wild about school choice, either public or private. Suburbanites are largely satisfied with the schools in their neighborhoods and want to protect the physical and financial independence of those schools (as well as their property values, which are tied to the perceived quality of local schools). School choice …

State Constitutional Litigation, Educational Finance, And Legal Impact: An Empirical Analysis, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Issues Surrounding Student Possession And Use Of Cell Phones In Schools, Ralph Mawdsley, Charles Russo

Charles J. Russo

Constitutional challenges to limits on the possession and/ or use of cell phones in schools present potential claims involving the Fourth Amendment rights of students to privacy and to be free from unreasonable searchesalong with parental Fourteenth Amendment Liberty Clauserights to direct the education and upbringing of their children. However, as reflected in this article, as long as educational officials enact policies in line with state laws that are explicitly designed to enhance school safety, challenges filed by students and their parents are probably destined to fail because constitutional claims are likely to be outweighed by concerns for the greater …

The Best Interest Of The Child: A United States And South African Perspective, Ralph Mawdsley, Johan Beckmann, Charles Russo

Charles J. Russo

No abstract provided.

The Supreme Court And The Pledge Of Allegiance: A Hollow Victory, Charles J. Russo, Ralph D. Mawdsley

Charles J. Russo

In Elk Grove Unified School District v Newdow (Elk Grove) the Supreme Court, in an 8–0 judgment, with three concurrences, upheld the words ‘under God’ in the Pledge of Allegiance. In light of the uproar caused by Elk Grove, this article is divided into three parts. After reviewing the history of the Pledge the second section examines the litigation involving the pledge, including Elk Grove in this regard. The article concludes with brief reflections on the meaning of Elk Grove.

Education Law, Ralph Mawdsley, Charles Russo

Charles J. Russo

Whether you are involved in a labor arbitration or trying to determine whether a student's body piercing is a form of expression protected by the First Amendment, Education Law will help you meet your responsibilities effectively.

Both a textbook and a practitioner's guide, Education Law provides insightful analysis and case law citations on such topics as: school governance; finance and procurement; employment issues, including tenure, dismissal, discrimination and reductions in the workforce; collective bargaining and dispute resolution procedures; student rights; requirements to provide individualized education to disabled students; tort liability; and more.

You'll find helpful discussions of countless problem areas, …

Religious Events In Public Schools: Celebration Or Controversy?, Ralph Mawdsley, Charles Russo

Charles J. Russo

This article presents 3 questions for discussion: Can religious holidays be honored as long as all religions are treated equally? Can school officials ban all celebrations of religious holidays? Can officials choose to honor only certain holiday seasons but not others? The courts have increasingly disfavored religious celebrations and other religious activities in public schools. In a world where religious strife is rampant, if children are prohibited from learning about the religious traditions of peers, how will they ever develop tolerance for and an appreciation of people whose beliefs differ from their own?

Respect For Me But Not For Thee: Reflections On The Impact Of Same-Sex Marriage On Education, Charles J. Russo

Charles J. Russo

No abstract provided.

Searches, Seizures And Drug Testing Procedures: Balancing Rights And School Safety, 1st Edition, Ralph Mawdsley, Charles Russo

Charles J. Russo

No abstract provided.