Law Commons^™

Covenants To Discriminate: How The Anti-Lgbt Policies Of Participating Voucher Schools Might Violate The State Action Doctrine, Preston C. Green Iii, Julie F. Mead, Suzanne E. Eckes

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

This article analyzes the legal arguments that students might make to compel states that subsidize private education through voucher, tax credit scholarship, and ESA programs to offer these programs on an equal basis, regardless of the sexual orientation or gender identity of the student or members of the student’s family. The first section provides an overview of voucher programs and discusses the prevalence of participating schools with anti-LGBT admissions policies. The second section evaluates constitutional challenges that students could make to invalidate the anti-LGBT admissions policies of participating voucher schools under the state action doctrine. Specifically, we explain the possibilities …

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 …

Vouchers And Affordable Housing: The Limits Of Choice In The Political Economy Of Place, Rigel C. Oliveri

Faculty Publications

America's housing segregation problem, and the direct role of government and private actors in creating it, is well documented. What to do about it is less clear. And even when consensus develops about particular strategies, they can be difficult to implement because of significant headwinds that impede change. These headwinds-including market forces, government policies, and private prejudices-continue to stymie progress, and even well-intentioned reform efforts can fail at best and lead to negative consequences at worst. This piece seeks not to provide answers, but rather to describe one such set of reforms and headwinds and to propose some modest policy …

Coerced Choice: School Vouchers And Students With Disabilities, Claire Raj

Faculty Publications

The landscape of public education, once thought to be a core function of the state, is shifting towards privatization. The appointment of Betsy DeVos as U.S. Secretary of Education further cements this shift. In particular, DeVos intends to vastly expand the availability of vouchers and tax credits that use public dollars to fund private school tuition. The debate over this expansion and its impact on traditional public schools has been polarizing and combative. Thus far, commentators have framed vouchers as purely matters of choice and increased educational opportunities. Drowned out in the debate are the voices of students with disabilities. …

Establishing A More Effective Safmr System: The Cost And Benefits Of Hud's 2016 Small Area Fair Market Rent Rule, John Treat

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note analyzes the new HUD rule finalized in November 2016, which dramatically changed the structure of the Housing Choice Voucher program in select metropolitan areas. In August 2017, HUD suspended automatic implementation of the rule until 2020 for twenty-three of the twenty-four selected metropolitan areas, but in December 2017, a preliminary injunction was granted requiring HUD to implement the rule as of January 1, 2018. The rule as written changes the method for calculating the vouchers from using a metropolitan area-wide average to calculating a separate level for each zip code. Such a change could greatly deconcentrate poverty and …

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. …

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

Nicole Stelle Garnett

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. …

Wisconsin Law In The Age Of Individualism, Joseph A. Ranney

Marquette Law Review

None

The Middle Class, Urban Schools, And Choice, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

The Middle Class, Urban Schools And Choice, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Hip-Hop And Housing: Revisiting Culture, Urban Space, Power, And Law, Lisa T. Alexander

Lisa T. Alexander

U.S. housing law is finally receiving its due attention. Scholars and practitioners are focused primarily on the subprime mortgage and foreclosure crises. Yet the current recession has also resurrected the debate about the efficacy of place-based lawmaking. Place-based laws direct economic resources to low-income neighborhoods to help existing residents remain in place and to improve those areas. Law-and-economists and staunch integrationists attack place-based lawmaking on economic and social grounds. This Article examines the efficacy of place-based lawmaking through the underutilized prism of culture. Using a sociolegal approach, it develops a theory of cultural collective efficacy as a justification for place-based …

Schwartz V. Lopez And The Fate Of Nevada's Education Savings Accounts, Brittany Lee Walker

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Winning The Crowd: Harnessing Taxpayer Choices To Improve Educational Quality, W. Edward Afield

W. Edward "Ted" Afield

No abstract provided.

The Middle Class, Urban Schools, And Choice, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Is It Unconstitutional To Prohibit Faith-Based Schools From Becoming Charter Schools?, Stephen D. Sugarman

Stephen D Sugarman

This article argues that it is unconstitutional for state charter school programs to preclude faith-based schools from obtaining charters. First, the “school choice” movement of the past 50 years is described, situating charter schools in that movement. The current state of play of school choice is documented and the roles of charter schools, private schools (primarily faith-based schools), and public school choice options are elaborated. In this setting I argue a) based on the current state of the law it would not be unconstitutional (under the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause) for states to elect to make faith-based schools eligible for …

Vouchers And Beyond: The Individual As Causative Agent In Establishment Clause Jurisprudence, Laura S. Underkuffler

Laura S. Underkuffler

Symposium: Religious Liberty at the Dawn of a New Millennium held at Indiana University School of Law-Bloomington on April 9, 1999.

Winning The Crowd: Harnessing Taxpayer Choices To Improve Educational Quality, W. Edward Afield

Catholic University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reality Over Ideology: A Practical View Of Special Needs Voucher Programs, Elizabeth Adamo Usman

Law Faculty Scholarship

In many school systems across the country, children with disabilities are not receiving the education that they are entitled to by law and need in order to reach their full potential. Although there are certainly triumphant examples of school systems that have succeeded in supporting students with special needs, there are unfortunately far too many examples of neglect, misunderstanding, and, ultimately, failure across the country. Into this struggling system emerges an expanding and difficult challenge that only adds further pressure. Due to the growing numbers of children diagnosed with Autism and the level of expertise required to deal with many …

The Theology Of The Blaine Amendments, Richard W. Garnett

Richard W Garnett

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. …

To The Front Of The Line: Spurring Biotech Collaboration Through Patent Fast-Track Examination Vouchers, Scott E. Yackey

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Hip-Hop And Housing: Revisiting Culture, Urban Space, Power, And Law, Lisa T. Alexander

Faculty Scholarship

U.S. housing law is finally receiving its due attention. Scholars and practitioners are focused primarily on the subprime mortgage and foreclosure crises. Yet the current recession has also resurrected the debate about the efficacy of place-based lawmaking. Place-based laws direct economic resources to low-income neighborhoods to help existing residents remain in place and to improve those areas. Law-and-economists and staunch integrationists attack place-based lawmaking on economic and social grounds. This Article examines the efficacy of place-based lawmaking through the underutilized prism of culture. Using a sociolegal approach, it develops a theory of cultural collective efficacy as a justification for place-based …

Blue Moonlight Rising: Evictions, Alternative Accommodation And A Comparative Perspective On Affordable Housing Solutions In Johannesburg, Gerald Dickinson

Gerald S. Dickinson

The City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality v Blue Moonlight Properties 39 (Pty) Ltd and Another (338/10) [2011] ZASCA 47 (30 March 2011) is a welcomed addition to the eviction jurisprudence in South Africa. Courts have jostled for years with the question of whether socio-economic rights should be enforced in the context of adequate housing and evictions. Today, the central questions in comparative constitutional law now deal with how courts should enforce such rights. In other words, what are the remedies for violations of socio-economic rights? The usual proposed remedies are coercive orders aimed at guaranteeing occupiers the denied rights directly, …

Autism In The Us: Social Movement And Legal Change, Daniela Caruso

Faculty Scholarship

The social movement surrounding autism in the US has been rightly defined a ray of light in the history of social progress. The movement is inspired by a true understanding of neuro-diversity and is capable of bringing about desirable change in political discourse. At several points along the way, however, the legal reforms prompted by the autism movement have been grafted onto preexisting patterns of inequality in the allocation of welfare, education, and medical services. In a context most recently complicated by economic recession, autism-driven change bears the mark of political contingency and legal fragmentation. Distributively, it yields ambivalent results …

School Vouchers And The Road To Academic Excellence After Bush V. Holmes, Stephen Messer

Stephen Messer

This article discusses the recent battle in the Florida courts regarding Florida's version of school vouchers. The article debates the state district level and supreme level decisions (both of which found the vouchers unconstitutional, but on different grounds). The article then recognizes the split in the Florida Supreme Court, noting that all Republican appointees to the court dissented in the ruling and that while the issue is still alive and well, the current Republican governor has recently replaced 4 members of the Court; this restaffing of the court, combined with a school system that continues to fall behind, has created …

Criminalization Of Housing: A Revolving Door That Results In Boarded Up Doors In Low-Income Neighborhoods In Baltimore, Maryland, Sarah Spangler Rhine

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

Wills, Trusts, And Estates, J. Rodney Johnson

University of Richmond Law Review

The General Assembly enacted legislation dealing with wills, trusts, and estates that added or amended a number of sections of the Virginia Code in its 2005 Session. In addition, there were two opinions from the Supreme Court of Virginia that presented issues of interest to the general practitioner as well as to the specialist in wills, trusts, and estates during the period covered by this review. This article reports on all of these legislative and judicial developments.

The Challenge Of Inner-City Education, Lois Libby

Education Faculty Publications

There are two Connecticuts described in public education circles: One Connecticut includes a set of school systems that are suburban, educating primarily white and/or Asian students. The other set of Connecticut schools systems is urban, comprised primarily of students of color, and of low socio-economic status. The purpose of this chapter is to focus on the latter set of schools, provide some history of their development, look at the indicators of poor progress in more detail, review options of ameliorating the urban school systems, including assessments of state efforts so far, and offer some perspectives and conclusions.

Rules Of The Game: The "Play In The Joints" Between The Religion Clauses, Sharon Keller

ExpressO

Locke v. Davey is an exemplar of the new generation of Establishment clause cases that, particularly in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, have written into law a safe harbor, private choice, for governmental benefits that find their way into the coffers of religious institutions in amounts that are neither incidental nor trivial. In Locke the options presented in the private choice arguably infringed upon Free Exercise rights-- the dilemma that gives rise to the title of this article. Over the vigorous dissent of Justice Scalia, the Locke Court’s analysis of the permissibility of the conditioned benefit was based upon the argument that …

Toward A Small Donor Democracy: The Past And Future Of Incentive Programs For Small Political Contributions, Thomas J. Cmar

ExpressO

Political contribution incentive programs are a promising, under-explored means to address the problem of political equality in the American system of campaign finance. If properly designed, these programs -- which include tax credits, refunds, and vouchers -- could allow all Americans to participate on an equal basis in the crucial early-stage decisions that determine which candidates decide to run and are able to compete effectively. This article, written on behalf of U.S. PIRG, proposes a tax credit for political contributions as a first step toward building a "small donor democracy."

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. …