Education Law Commons^™

Is The "Adequacy" Standard A More Political Question That The 'Equality' Standard?: The Effect Of Standards-Based Education On Judicial Standards For Education Finance Litigation, Avidan Y. Cover

Faculty Publications

This Note argues that the recent shift in state court litigation from an equality claim to one of adequacy has compelled many courts to insert themselves in the discussion and creation of educational policy that was previously viewed as unacceptable. This evolution may render courts vulnerable to appellate challenges and criticisms of nonjusticiability and political question doctrine violations regarding institutional competence and judicial prudence. In addition, the demise of the equality argument diminishes the moral strength of the court's normative valuation capacity. Section I examines the history of education finance cases and reviews the three waves of litigation strategies, which …

Rich Kids, Poor Kids, And The Single-Sex Education Debate, Rosemary C. Salomone

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Over the past decade, the subject of publicly supported, single-sex education has generated considerable debate in legal and policy circles. Since 1996, much of that debate has centered around the Supreme Court's decision in the Virginia Military Institute case and how that case intersects with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. In VMI, Justice Ginsburg, speaking for the Court, stated that gender classifications must have "an exceedingly persuasive justification" in order to pass muster under the Fourteenth Amendment equal protection clause. That decision has become a key factor in recent efforts by school districts to establish …

Book Review Of Make Haste Slowly: Moderates, Conservatives, And School Desegregation In Houston, Davison M. Douglas

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of Forced Justice: School Desegregation And The Law And Race Relations Litigation In An Age Of Complexity, Davison M. Douglas

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Lessons From A Prophet On Vocational Identity: Profit Or Philanthropy?, Cheryl L. Wade

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

After sifting through state statutes that codify corporate behavior and the decisions interpreting those statutes, corporate attorneys may serve their clients and improve our society if they also consulted the teachings of a Baptist preacher. The Baptist preacher to whom I refer is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the lessons for attorneys and law professors concerned with social justice that can be derived from his life and teachings were the focus of the 1998 Southeast/Southwest Law Teachers of Color Conference. The utility of Dr. King's instruction and the value of his model for ethical living are obvious for …

Struggling With The Devil: A Case Study Of Values In Conflict, Rosemary C. Salomone

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

In recent years, with increasing frequency, the media has drawn national attention to communities caught in gridlock over value conflicts in the schools. From Lake County, Florida, where a conservative Christian school board required teaching that American culture is superior to others, to New York City, where a controversial multicultural curriculum and the now infamous book Heather Has Two Mommies precipitated the Chancellor's downfall, these stories capture our imagination. Nevertheless, regardless of where we stand on the political spectrum, we often dismiss such compelling conflicts as isolated and distant incidents, never to be replicated with any real or lasting …

Book Review Of Desegregating Texas Schools: Eisenhower, Shivers, And The Crisis At Mansfield High, Davison M. Douglas

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The End Of Busing?, Davison M. Douglas

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Limits Of Law In Accomplishing Racial Change: School Segregation In The Pre-Brown North, Davison M. Douglas

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Common Schools, Uncommon Values: Listening To The Voices Of Dissent, Rosemary C. Salomone

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Education in America as we know it today draws its origins from the philosophical perspectives and political objectives of the common school reformers over a century ago. For them, mass education was a primary vehicle for defining ourselves as a nation. Schools would develop civic virtue and a national character through a shared set of values reflected in the school curriculum. The common school experience, offered to all regardless of social class or ethnic background, would assimilate the hordes of immigrants coming to our shores and meet the emerging needs of industrialization. Individuals across the economic spectrum, afforded education …

When Judges Are Gatekeepers: Democracy, Morality, Status, And Empathy In Duty Decisions (Help From Ordinary Citizens), Cheryl L. Wade

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Imagine that you are eighteen and you have just graduated from high school. Even though you have no cognitive disability and have spent twelve years of your life attending public schools, you are functionally illiterate. If your predicament was caused by negligent educators, your action for educational malpractice would be called a "failure to educate" case and it would be denied.

Or, imagine that you enter a public school kindergarten class and you are examined by the school's psychologist. On the basis of a verbal intelligence test, the psychologist concludes that you are mentally retarded. In reality, you have …

The Children We Abandon: Religious Exemptions To Child Welfare And Education Law As Denials Of Equal Protection To Children Of Religious Objectors, James G. Dwyer

Faculty Publications

The story of children who die because their parents, in observance of their own religious principles, withhold conventional medical treatment from them is a familiar one. In this Article, James G. Dwyer shows that the phenomenon of parents denying secular benefits to their children for religious reasons goes far beyond these few highly publicized cases, extending into the realm of education as well as medical care. Moreover, Dr. Dwyer shows that the federal and state governments endorse this practice by statutorily exempting 'religious objector' parents from otherwise generally applicable compulsory child care and education laws. He argues that courts addressing …

Remark: Brown V. Board: Revisited, Michael A. Middleton

Faculty Publications

[T]he Negro needs neither segregated schools nor mixed schools. What he needs is Education. What he must remember is that there is no magic, either in mixed schools or in segregated schools. A mixed school with poor and unsympathetic teachers, with hostile public opinion, and no teaching of truth concerning black folk, is bad. A segregated school with ignorant placeholders, inadequate equipment, poor salaries, and wretched housing, is equally bad. Other things being equal, the mixed school is the broader, more natural basis for the education of all youth. It gives wider contacts; it inspires greater self-confidence; and suppresses the …

Educators Who Drive With No Hands: The Application Of Analytical Concepts Of Corporate Law In Certain Cases Of Educational Malpractice, Cheryl L. Wade

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

The national debate concerning the inadequacies of public schools in the United States and ways to alleviate some of the problems that plague them continues to rage. The performance of children in the United States on standardized tests is dangerously poor, and the rate of illiteracy dangerously high. An alarmingly large number of students do not finish high school. Education is often compromised because of crowded classrooms and shortages in school personnel and textbooks. Part of the debate about the problems in public education involves the search for someone or something to blame. While societal problems contribute to the …

Providing An Escape For Inner-City Children: Creating A Federal Remedy For Educational Ills Of Poor Urban Schools, Amy J. Schmitz

Faculty Publications

Children in impoverished, urban areas attend dangerous and decrepit schools, where they receive low quality education which fails to prepare them for meaningful participation in the community. Many states, however, provide no legislative or judicial remedy for these children, who desperately need vocational and educational skills to enable them to escape from the deprivation of their urban landscape. Meanwhile, federal officials speak

Interest Balancing And Other Limits To Judicially Managed Equal Educational Opportunity, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Public Forum Doctrine And The Perils Of Categorical Thinking: Lessons From Lamb's Chapel, Rosemary C. Salomone

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

In recent years, the intersection of the Religion and Speech Clauses of the First Amendment has become increasingly controversial particularly in the context of public schooling. Religious group meetings, the distribution of religious literature, the discussion of religious themes, and the recitation of prayers at graduation ceremonies have all forced the courts to weigh and re-weigh the right to individual speech against the responsibility of the state to stay within the bounds of Establishment Clause doctrine. Several legal and political factors have fueled this debate. Although the Supreme Court has reaffirmed on several occasions the unconstitutionality of organized prayer …

Toil Of The Firestarters, Peter A. Alces

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Philadelphia Plan, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Quest For Freedom In The Post-Brown South: Desegregation And White Self-Interest, Davison M. Douglas

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Of God And Caesar: The Free Exercise Rights Of Public School Students, George W. Dent

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Free Speech And School Governance In The Wake Of Hazelwood, Rosemary C. Salomone

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

The Supreme Court's 1988 decision in Hazelwood School District v. KuhImeier upholding public school officials' authority to censor material in a high school student newspaper sent immediate shock waves throughout the educational and legal communities. The Court's sweeping language in Hazelwood moved far beyond the narrow issue of school newspaper censorship. It even moved beyond the question of appropriate or acceptable speech in public secondary schools. It was clear that Hazelwood could have far-reaching consequences for student rights, school governance, and the scope of official authority to make curricular decisions that reflect the values of the local community.

Some …

Fundamentalist Christian Educators V. State: An Inevitable Compromise, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

From Widmar To Mergens: The Winding Road Of First Amendment Analysis, Rosemary C. Salomone

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

In 1981, the Supreme Court decided Widmar v. Vincent, holding that a state university that created a "limited open forum" by opening its facilities to student organizations must grant equal access to religiously affiliated groups. The university's failure to do so constituted content-based discrimination that violated the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Court rejected the university's argument that its policy to disallow religious meetings on campus was implemented to avoid contravening establishment clause principles. The Court's opinion was inconclusive as to whether the Widmar rationale would apply to secondary schools.

During the same period, Congress …

Mandatory Student Fees: First Amendment Concerns And University Discretion, Christina E. Wells

Faculty Publications

This Comment analyzes the constitutional issues raised by the use of mandatory student fees to fund speech at public universities. Part I examines the interests of students and universities with respect to the use of such fees. Part II examines court decisions in this area. Part III looks to the nature of student fees and demonstrates that they are permissible exercises of university discretion. Parts IV and V discuss whether the Constitution requires a university, if it funds student organizations by mandatory fees, to fund all organizations equally, without regard to other students' objections to those organizations' viewpoints.

Student Speech—Free Press In High Schools, Michael A. Simons

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Public educators in the United States are expected to pass on to their students—to inculcate in them—the shared values of their community. This communication of values is essential to the continued vitality of American culture and to the social, moral, and political education of students. Yet inculcation of community values cannot be allowed to trample students' individual liberties; public educators must strike a delicate balance between the state's educational interests and the students' rights to self-expression. Although the striking of this balance should initially be left to local educators, when value inculcation impermissibly interferes with students' constitutional rights, courts …

Centralization In Education: Why Johnny Can't Spell Bureaucracy, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

On The Limits Of Court-Ordered Social Change: A Critical Look At Dimond's Beyond Busing, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Sweatt V. Painter, The End Of Segregation, And The Transformation Of Education Law, Jonathan L. Entin

Faculty Publications

This Article will analyze these aspects of the Sweatt case. Part I describes the facts leading to the litigation. Part II examines the Supreme Court precedents facing Sweatt's attorneys, both in the area of school segregation and in the field of education generally. This section concludes that the Court at best seemed pre- pared only to enforce the Plessy doctrine, and none too rigorously at that. Part III focuses upon the process of making the record at the trial. This section demonstrates how Sweatt's counsel took advantage of ambiguities in the prior cases to lead the Curt to address the …

Defining Effective Civil Rights Enforcement In Education, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.