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 …

When May A State Require Teaching Alternatives To The Theory Of Evolution? Intelligent Design As A Test Case, Stephen L. Marshall

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

School Vaccination Requirements: Historical, Social, And Legal Perspectives, James G. Hodge Jr., Lawrence O. Gostin

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Postsecondary School Education Benefits For Undocumented Immigrants: Promises And Pitfalls, Victor C. Romero

Faculty Scholarship

Should longtime undocumented immigrants have the same opportunity as lawful permanent residents and U.S. citizens to attend state colleges and universities? There are two typical justifications for denying them such opportunities. First, treating undocumented immigrants as in-state residents discriminates against U.S. citizen nonresidents of the state. Second, and more broadly, undocumented immigration should be discouraged as a policy matter, and therefore allowing undocumented immigrant children equal opportunities as legal residents condones and perhaps encourages "illegal" immigration. This essay responds to these two concerns by surveying state and federal solutions to this issue.

"I'M Usually The Only Black In My Class": The Human And Social Costs Of Within-School Segregation, Carla O'Connor

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

The work that has focused on within-school segregation has been most concerned with how this phenomenon limits the educational opportunities and might incur a psychological toll on the mass of Black students who find themselves relegated to lower-ability classrooms in integrated schools. This Article, however, allows us to begin to examine the other side of the coin. It reports on how within-school segregation practices create psychological, social, and educational pressures for those few Black students who have escaped enrollment in the least rigorous courses in their school. More precisely, the Article offers insight into how high achieving Black students in …

Putting Black Kids Into A Trick Bag: Anatomizing The Inner-City Public School Reform, Wilbur C. Rich

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Part I of this Article discusses the history of Brown, and the legal and political barriers that prevented the nation from fulfilling Brown's promise. Part II, will examine the phenomenon of White flight, which resulted from the efforts to implement the court-ordered desegregation of public schools. The political and economic effects of White flight on school reform efforts will also be examined. Part III will provide the reader with possible explanations for why school desegregation failed. The author will argue that the unexpected complexity of the task of desegregation, the lack of a unified direction among the judiciary, and …

Not As Simple As Learning The Abc's: A Comment On Owasso Independent School District No. I-Ol1 V. Falvo And The State Of The Family Educational Rights And Privacy Act, Randi M. Rothberg

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article examines the Supreme Court's rulings in Falvo and Owasso, which determined that peer grading practices do not violate FERPA as the records involved are not classified as education records. This highlights significant implications for student privacy rights and underscores the need for clarifying FERPA's definitions to prevent future legal disputes.

An Essay On The Professional Responsibility Of Affirmative Action In Higher Education, Emily Calhoun

Publications

No abstract provided.

School Vouchers And Religious Liberty: Seven Questions From Madison's Memorial And Remonstrance, Vincent A. Blasi

Faculty Scholarship

In the immediate aftermath of the Revolutionary War, many upstanding citizens of the fledgling state of Virginia were not pleased. They were, in fact, appalled by the decline they perceived in the state of public morals. Newspaper editorials, sermons, and speeches in public assemblies resounded with references to the recent upsurge in gambling, whoring, cockfighting, and public drunkenness. That such departures from the straight and narrow are not uncommon in postwar periods, following all the social dislocations of military mobilization, was no consolation to Virginians eager to show a doubting world that government by the people could work.

The root …

Making Kids Toe The Line In The Old Line State: The Disparate Application Of Public School Discipline Polices In Maryland, Allison I. Fultz

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Making Kids Toe The Line In The Old Line State: The Disparate Application Of Public School Discipline Polices In Maryland, Allison I. Fultz

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Twenty-Five Years Later With Promises To Keep: Legal Education In Dispute Resolution And Training Of Mediators, Lela P. Love

Articles

No abstract provided.

Preparing For The Clothed Public Square: Teaching About Religion, Civic Education, And The Constitution, Jay D. Wexler

Faculty Scholarship

Although law and religion scholars have long argued about whether American culture marginalizes religious belief, many important indicators suggest that religion indeed plays a prominent role in contemporary American life. America is an extremely religious nation. Polls consistently show that about ninety percent of Americans continue to believe in God, and both church attendance and membership remain at high levels. This religiosity, moreover, spills out into the public square. A great many Americans rely on religious reasons when thinking and talking about public issues. Ninety percent of the members of Congress, by one report, consult their religious beliefs when voting …

Teaching About Religion In Public Schools, Kent Greenawalt

Faculty Scholarship

Two of the twentieth century's most controversial Supreme Court decisions held that public schools could not sponsor devotional prayer and Bible reading as part of their educational program. Yet, whether to begin school with a few minutes of devotional practice matters far less than what schools teach about religion, one of the most nettlesome issues of church-state relations in a liberal democracy. This question has received comparatively little attention from constitutional lawyers, because the Supreme Court has declared that teaching about religion is acceptable and has not addressed challenges to programs educators have labeled in this way. Many citizens, of …

Random Vs. Suspicion-Based Drug Testing In The Public Schools -- A Surprising Civil Liberties Dilemma, Martin H. Belsky

Akron Law Faculty Publications

The Tecumseh School District had a policy that all students who wished to participate in extracurricular activities that involved some sort of competition had to agree to drug testing before the competition and then randomly thereafter. ... Those selected for accusatory drug testing might be perceived to be wearing a "badge of shame" and be subject to the arbitrary whim of an administrator. ... Vernonia involved a rule requiring drug testing as a condition for participation in extracurricular competitive sports. ... In Earls, the Tecumseh School District adopted a "Student Activities Drug Testing Policy" that required all students who wished …

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 …

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 Supreme Court's Misplaced Concern With Selective Fairness: Bush V. Gore And Three Analogies To Grading Dilemmas, William K.S. Wang

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Liberty Not Fully Evolved?: The Case Of Rodney Levake And The Right Of Public School Teachers To Criticize Darwinism, Francis J. Beckwith

San Diego Law Review

In 2001, the Minnesota Court of Appeals reviewed the case of Rodney LeVake, a public school teacher who sought to enhance his school

district’s required science curriculum by suggesting to students alternative viewpoints inconsistent with that curriculum. This case, LeVake v. Independent School District, should be of great interest to legal theorists. Its holding, and the reasoning on which it is based, may serve as a Socratic provocation regarding the extent to which public school teachers have constitutional academic freedom (apart from statutory requirements or permission) to voluntarily include criticisms of and alternatives to evolutionary theory.