Law Commons^™

Decoupling Property And Education, Nicole Stelle Garnett

Journal Articles

Over the past several years, the landscape of K–12 education policy has shifted dramatically, thanks in part to increasing prevalence of parental-choice policies, including intra- and inter-district public school choice, charter schools, and private-school choice policies like vouchers and (most recently) universal education savings accounts. These policies decouple property and education by delinking students’ educational options from their residential addresses. The wisdom and efficacy of parental choice as education policy is hotly debated. This Essay takes a step back from these education-policy debates and examines the underappreciated fact that decoupling property and education also advances at least economic development goals. …

The Comparative Legal Landscape Of Educational Pluralism, Nicole Stelle Garnett

Journal Articles

In the United States, debates about private and faith-based education tend to focus on questions about government funding: which kinds of schools should the government fund (and at what levels)? Should, for example, students be able to use public funds to attend privately operated schools? Faith-based schools? If so, what policy mechanisms should be used to fund private schools—vouchers, tax credits, direct transfer payments? How much funding should these schools receive? The same amount as public schools or less? As a historical matter, the focus on funding in the United States makes sense because only public (that is, government-operated) elementary …

Post-Accountability Accountability, Nicole Stelle Garnett

Journal Articles

Over the past few decades, parental choice has exploded in the United States. Yet, despite early proponents’ hopes that parental choice would eliminate the need to regulate school quality—since parents’ choices would serve an accountability function—demands to use the law to hold chosen schools accountable for their academic performance are central features of education-reform debates today. This is an opportune time to consider the issue of academic accountability and parental choice. Parental choice has gained a firm foothold in the American educational landscape. As it continues to expand, debates about accountability for chosen schools will only intensify. The questions of …

Sector Agnosticism And The Coming Transformation Of Education Law, Nicole Stelle Garnett

Journal Articles

Over the past two decades, the landscape of elementary and secondary education in the United States has shifted dramatically, due to the emergence and expansion of privately provided, but publicly funded, schooling options (including both charter schools and private-school choice devices like vouchers, tax credits and educational savings accounts). This transformation in the delivery of K12 education is the result of a confluence of factors—discussed in detail below—that increasingly lead education reformers to support efforts to increase the number of high quality schools serving disadvantaged students across all three educational sectors, instead of focusing exclusively on reforming urban public schools. …

Disparate Impact, School Closures, And Parental Choice, Nicole Stelle Garnett

Journal Articles

We live in an era of parental choice. Today, forty-two states and the District of Columbia authorize charter schools, and twenty states and the District of Columbia permit students to use public funds to attend a private school. During the 2012-2013 school year, nearly 2 million children attended charter schools, and nearly 250,000 children received publicly funded scholarship to attend a private school. The expanding menu of publicly funded educational options is one (but by no means the only) factor contributing to the current, intensely controversial, waves of urban public school closures. In school-closure debates, proponents of traditional public schools …

Are Charters Enough Choice? School Choice And The Future Of Catholic Schools, Nicole Stelle Garnett

Journal Articles

An essay is presented on Catholic and charter schools and the closing of such schools in the U.S. The academic performance, parental involvement and the after-school religious education targeted for charter school students is discussed. The connections between the Catholic and charter schools and the legal issues governing conversion to charter schools is also discussed along with the concerns in the urban community due the closure of Catholic schools.

Catholic Schools, Charter Schools, And Urban Neighborhoods, Margaret F. Brinig, Nicole Stelle Garnett

Journal Articles

This paper addresses implications for urban neighborhoods of two dramatic shifts in the American educational landscape: (1) the rapid disappearance of Catholic schools from urban neighborhoods, and (2) the rise of charter schools. In previous studies, we linked Catholic school closures to increased disorder and crime, and decreased social cohesion, in Chicago neighborhoods. This paper turns to two questions unanswered in our previous investigations. First, because we focused exclusively on school closures in our previous studies, we were uncertain whether our results reflected the work that open Catholic schools do as neighborhood institutions or whether we were finding a “loss …

A Winn For Educational Pluralism, Nicole Stelle Garnett

Journal Articles

This short essay takes as its starting point on the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Winn v. Arizona Christian Tuition Organization, which involved an Establishment Clause challenge to Arizona’s scholarship tax program — a school-choice device that provides tax credits from state income taxes for donations to organizations granting scholarship to private K-12 schools. In Winn, a divided court ruled that taxpayers lack standing to challenge this and other tax credit programs — thereby dramatically limiting the Flast v. Cohen exception to the no-taxpayer-standing rule. The essay makes the case that the Winn will promote authentic educational pluralism by clearing …

Affordable Private Education And The Middle Class City, Nicole Stelle Garnett

Journal Articles

This Essay, which was prepared for a University of Chicago Law School’s symposium on “Rethinking the Local Government Toolkit,” argues that affordable private schools serve an important urban-development function: They partially unbundle the residential and educational decisions of families with children. Thus, state and local officials hoping to make our make central city neighborhoods attractive places to raise children should consider employing a familiar urban development tool - tax incentives - to make quality private schools more financially accessible to middle-income families. The Essay proceeds in three parts. Part I builds the case for a middle class city. Part II …

Catholic Schools, Urban Neighborhoods, And Education Reform, Margaret F. Brinig, Nicole Stelle Garnett

Journal Articles

More than 1,600 Catholic elementary and secondary schools have closed or been consolidated during the last two decades. The Archdiocese of Chicago alone (the subject of our study) has closed 148 schools since 1984. Primarily because urban Catholic schools have a strong track record of educating disadvantaged children who do not, generally, fare well in public schools, these school closures have prompted concern in education policy circles. While we are inclined to agree that Catholic school closures contribute to a broader educational crisis, this paper shies away from debates about educational outcomes. Rather than focusing on the work done inside …

Can There Really Be "Free Speech" In Public Schools?, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

The Supreme Court's decision in Morse v. Frederick leaves unresolved many interesting and difficult problems about the authority of public-school officials to regulate public-school students' speech. Perhaps the most intriguing question posed by the litigation, decision, and opinions in More is one that the various Justices who wrote in the case never squarely addressed: What is the "basic education mission" of public schools, and what are the implications of this "mission" for officials' authority and students' free-speech rights. Given what we have come to think the Free Speech clause means, and considering the values it is thought to enshrine and …

Bush V. Holmes: School Vouchers, Religious Freedom, And State Constitutions, Richard W. Garnett, Christopher S. Pearsall

Journal Articles

In Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, the Supreme Court of the US ruled that the First Amendment’s Religion Clause, i.e. ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof’, permits publicly funded school-voucher experiments that include private and religious schools. In other words, the Court made it clear—albeit by a narrow 5-4 margin—that governments do not unconstitutionally ‘establish[]’ religion merely by permitting eligible students to use publicly funded scholarships to attend qualifying religious schools, so long as the students’ parents are able to make a ‘true private choice’ for the school their children attend.

However, …

The Theology Of The Blaine Amendments, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

The Supreme Court affirmed, in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, that the Constitution permits us to experiment with school-choice programs and, in particular, with programs that include religious schools. However, the constitutions of nearly forty States contain provisions - generically called Blaine Amendments - that speak more directly and, in many cases, more restrictively, than does the First Amendment to the flow of once-public funds to religious schools. This Article is a series of reflections, prompted by the Blaine Amendments, on education, citizenship, political liberalism, and religious freedom.

First, the Article considers what might be called the federalism defense of the provisions. …

An Unconstitutional Stereotype: Catholic Schools As Pervasively Sectarian, Gerard V. Bradley

Journal Articles

The Supreme Court first held public assistance to religious schools unconstitutional in 1971 in Lemon v. Kurtzman. From then until now the concept of “pervasively sectarian” has played a central role in “parochaid” jurisprudence; every holding against “direct” aid has rested upon it as a necessary premise. “Pervasively sectarian” refers to the assertedly religious (“sectarian”) character of the entire curriculum at parochial schools. Religion, it is said, so permeates the whole educational program that “direct aid” to any aspect of that program inescapably aids religion itself. And that, it is said, violates the Establishment Clause. Because aid statutes typically aim …

The Right Questions About School Choice: Education, Religious Freedom, And The Common Good, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

As this Essay goes to press, the Supreme Court is considering whether Ohio's school-choice program violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. In my view, the Ohio program is sound public policy, and it is consistent with the Justices' present understanding of the Establishment Clause. I also believe that the Court will and should permit this experiment, and our conversations about its merits, to continue. The purpose of this Essay, though, is not to predict or evaluate ex ante the Court's decision. Instead, my primary aim is to suggest and then sketch a few broad themes that--once the …

Religion At A Public University, Gerard V. Bradley

Journal Articles

On March 6, 2007, the College of William & Mary announced a “compromise” solution to its polite civil war over the historic Wren Chapel. In a joint statement with President Gene Nichol, the Board of Visitors declared that permanent display of the Christian cross within the Chapel would resume. The cross would be moved, however, from its former place at center stage on the Chapel altar. Accompanying the elocated display would be a plaque “explaining the College's Anglican roots.” The compromise further provided that, when needed during certain worship services, the cross could be moved back to the altar. When …

Common Schools And The Common Good: Reflections On The School-Choice Debate, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

Thank you very much for this timely and important discussion on school choice, religious faith, and the public good.

First things first—Steven Green is right: The Cleveland school-voucher case is headed for the Supreme Court. And I am afraid that Mr. Green is also correct when he observes that the question whether the First Amendment permits States to experiment with meaningful choice-based education reform will likely turn on Justice O'Connor's fine-tuned aesthetic reactions to the minutiae of Ohio's school-choice experiment.

Putting aside for now the particulars of the Cleveland case, though, I would like to propose for your consideration a …

Students And Due Process In Higher Education: Of Interests And Procedures, Fernand N. Dutile

Journal Articles

In the process of enforcing their academic and disciplinary standards, colleges and universities increasingly find themselves confronting the possibility and even the reality of litigation. At public institutions, of course, the strictures of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment loom especially large. Meeting the complex needs of their institutions and students as well as the expectations of American courts presents an ongoing and daunting challenge to higher education personnel.

For both internal and external reasons, institutional dealings with aberrant students in public higher education has, over the years, developed on a dual track. Courts themselves have generally treated …

School Choice, The First Amendment, And Social Justice, Nicole Stelle Garnett, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

This Article is intended to be a primer on the legality and morality of educational choice—"School Choice in a Nutshell," if you will. We are resigned to being pre-empted by the tireless work of grassroots activists, the choices of voters, and the decisions of judges. Still, we hope, in somewhat polemical fashion, to establish two basic claims. First, school choice, properly understood, is constitutional. And second, school choice is both sensible and just.

In the end, we believe "school choice . . . is essential to achieving equality of opportunity for American children, rich or poor. School choice treats the …

Education Reform At The Crossroads: Politics, The Constitution, And The Battle Over School Choice, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

The "Education Reform at the Crossroads" Conference's four panels tackled the education-reform and school-choice questions from a variety of perspectives—one panel, led by Cleveland's indefatigable councilwoman and education revolutionary Ms. Fannie Lewis, explored the history and increasingly visible politics of the school-choice debate—in particular, the marked increase in support for school choice among African Americans"—while another group focused on the constitutionality of including religious schools in voucher programs and on the historical connection between anti-Catholic nativism and the common-school movement. A third panel discussed framing school-choice as a "civil rights issue" and the fourth—which included political scientist and education researcher …

Law And Governance Affecting The Resolution Of Academic And Disciplinary Disputes At Scottish Universities: An American Perspective, Fernand N. Dutile

Journal Articles

At the entrance to St. Mary's College, a part of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, one encounters the opening words of the Gospel of St. John: "In principio erat verbum." Eschewing the usual translation, students there irreverently render the passage thus: "The Principal has the last word." The existence of the position of Principal in a university and the substantial power of that official cause only part of the fascination experienced by the American observer of universities in Scotland. This article will assess, from an American perspective, the law and governance affecting the resolution of academic and disciplinary …

Law, Governance, And Academic And Disciplinary Decisions In Australian Universities: An American Perspective, Fernand N. Dutile

Journal Articles

On a bulletin board at the University of Queensland, in Brisbane, Australia appears the following warning to students: "Please don't cheat in your exams; Senate is not inclined to be merciful." The emphasis in this entreaty on the role of the University governing board reflects a major difference, although only one of them, between the American and Australian treatments of student shortcomings, academic or disciplinary.

This Article will discuss, from an American perspective, the law affecting decisions regarding academic and disciplinary matters in Australian universities. This discussion will address not only internal university governance, but also the impact of Constitutional, …

Common Sense In Formation For The Common Good - Justice White's Dissents In The Parochial School Aid Cases: Patron Of Lost Causes Or Precursor Of Good News, John J. Coughlin

Journal Articles

This Article envisions a new order for public education in this country. Pursuant to the new order, a free market under appropriate government regulation rather than unchecked political authority would determine the flow of public aid to various schools. Such an order would enable parents to choose what kind of school, secular or sectarian, presents the most desirable educational environment. The new arrangement would also provide incentives for quality education, as schools now run by the state government would have to compete on an even field with schools that currently receive no public funds.

It has been almost twenty years …

Peer Review: I'Ll Give You My Opinion If You Don't Tell Anyone What It Is: An Analysis Of University Of Pennsylvania V. Eeoc, Barbara J. Fick

Journal Articles

This article previews the Supreme Court case University of Pennsylvania v. EEOC, 493 U.S. 192 (1990). The author expected the Court to decide whether the EEOC may subpeopna peer review documents submitted to a university tenure committee when investigating charges that the committee engaged in impermissible discrimination when denying tenure to an associate professor.

Aspects Of The English Legal System, Geoffrey J. Bennett

Journal Articles

The object of this article is to point out some of the more obvious features of the English legal system for the benefit of people with no legal training. Teachers, school governors, and parents are all increasingly called upon to have some insight into the way the law affects their activ­ities, but the natural tendency is perhaps to concentrate only on those discrete areas that are of immediate concern. Sometimes, however, a broader perspective on how the parts articulate with the whole is essential to understanding what can be done with the system or why a certain result or procedure …

Conscientious Objection To Public Education: The Grievance And The Remedies, Charles E. Rice

Journal Articles

The Christian school movement is the logical outgrowth of the dissatisfaction of some parents, particularly some fundamentalist Baptists, with what they regard as excessive secularism in the public schools. The controversy has already produced some definitive litigation, but much remains unsettled. On the one hand, public authorities contend the public school is truly neutral toward religion. Compulsory attendance laws and other regulations by the state of private education are seen as legitimate measures, pursuant to the police power, to achieve a minimal level of intellectual and civic competence among the young. On the other hand, objecting parents and pastors regard …

Postsecondary Athletics And The Law: A Selected Bibliography, Edmund P. Edmonds

Journal Articles

Although sports have for many years been an integral part of American higher education, it was not until recent years that athletics in colleges and universities became enmeshed in legal problems. The heightened interest in the legal aspects of sports is apparent to even the most casual reader of the daily sports pages, and it is increasingly becoming a major concern of administrators in American colleges. Because of this interest one finds a number of articles appearing in law reviews in recent times, when in the past they were almost non-existent. In fact, the existence of this symposium issue is …

Prayer Amendment: A Justification, Charles E. Rice

Journal Articles

It is customary for each house of Congress to open its daily sessions with prayer delivered by its Chaplain. One might conclude that if the lawmakers of the nation are entitled to ask for divine blessing upon their work, so are the rest of us, including school children. Not so. For the Supreme Court of the United States has drawn the line. Legislators may pray, so far at least, but school children may not. Thus it was that the courts intervened to prevent the holding of "a period for the free exercise of religion" in the Netcong, New Jersey, public …

Due Process--Rights Of Confrontation & Cross Examination Accorded To Students At Expulsion Hearings, Margaret F. Brinig

Journal Articles

Tibbs v. Board of Education is the latest in a series of cases expanding the rights of high school students threatened with either expulsion or indefinite suspension. Although in most states a hearing is not explicitly required for student expulsion, recent cases have held that high school students are entitled to at least those "rudimentary elements of fair play" inherent in due process.

The safeguards now guaranteed by the decision in Tibbs are significant mainly because so few procedural rights were afforded secondary school pupils in the recent past. In the areas of appointed counsel and limitation of interim suspension, …

The New York State Constitution And Aid To Church-Related Schools, Charles E. Rice

Journal Articles

In summary, it is fair to say that to regard the rule of the Judd case as retaining its original vitality would be to lend undue credence to an erroneous construction of the 1938 amendment to Section 3 of Article XI of the New York State Constitution. For, although that amendment provided only for transportation of pupils, it should be construed in its true light as a reaction to the Judd decision which called it forth. As such it specifically validated only the provision of transportation which the legislature had enacted in 1936 and which the Judd Court had nullified. …