Law Commons^™

Preferencing Educational Choice: The Constitutional Limits, Derek Black

Faculty Publications

Rapidly expanding charter and voucher programs threaten a new education paradigm in which access to traditional public schools is no longer guaranteed in some communities. In some instances, choice programs are phasing out traditional public schools altogether. The most harmful effects of choice, however, occur at the local level, not the state level. Thus, this Article does not challenge the general constitutionality of choice programs. Instead, the Article identifies limitations that state constitutional rights to adequate and equal education place on choice policy.

First, states cannot preference private choice programs over public education. This conclusion flows from the fact that …

Civil Rights, Charter Schools, And Lessons To Be Learned, Derek W. Black

Faculty Publications

Two major structural shifts have occurred in education reform in the past two decades: the decline of civil rights reforms and the rise of charter schools. Courts and policy makers have relegated traditional civil rights reforms that address segregation, poverty, disability, and language barriers to near irrelevance, while charter schools and policies supporting their creation and expansion have rapidly increased and now dominate federal policy. Advocates of traditional civil rights reforms interpret the success of charter schools as a threat to their cause, and, consequently, have fought the expansion of charter schools. This Article argues that the civil rights community …

Education's Elusive Future, Storied Past, And The Fundamental Inequity In Between, Derek W. Black

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.