Education Law Commons^™

In The Name Of Diversity: Why Mandatory Diversity Statements Violate The First Amendment And Reduce Intellectual Diversity In Academia, Daniel M. Ortner

Catholic University Law Review

In the 1950s and 1960s in many parts of the country, a professor could be fired or never hired if he refused to denounce communism or declare loyalty to the United States Constitution. The University of California system took the lead in enforcing these loyalty oaths. These loyalty oaths were challenged all the way up to the United States Supreme Court and were soundly rejected, establishing the centrality of academic freedom and open inquiry on the university campus. So why are loyalty oaths making their resurgence in the form of mandatory diversity statements? Universities have begun requiring faculty members to …

Forming A More Perfect Honor System: Why The Trend Of Over-Legalizing Academic Honor Codes Must Be Reversed, Christopher M. Hartley

Catholic University Law Review

Legal processes dominate many honor systems at schools and universities. The negative impacts of this legal saturation include time-consuming, overly burdensome, and seldom understood honor systems as well as a shift of student focus from compliance with honor codes to a fixation on exoneration, given the increased opportunity for fighting and defeating honor allegations using legal recourses. This article is a clarion call for higher education immediate action: schools must scrutinize their honor systems to ensure they are legally efficient, not legally saturated. Authors of books and law journal articles have meticulously reviewed the academic honor system history and legal …

Ferpa And State Open Records Laws: What The North Carolina Supreme Court Got Wrong In Dth Media Corp. V. Folt, And How Courts & Congress Can Take Measures To Reconcile Privacy And Access Interests, Danielle Siegel

Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy Sidebar

Over the past few years, courts across the country have confronted a common scenario. Members of the public and media request records from a public university pertaining to its investigations of sexual assault and misconduct on campus. Then, media outlets contend they have a right to access these records under state open records laws. But the university claims that it cannot, or will not, disclose the records under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 ("FERPA").

The media outlet then files suit to compel disclosure. This Note explores the competing privacy and access interests at stake in this …

Safe At Home?, Mary Steffenhagen

Capstones

Homeschooling is rising in America at an unprecedented rate. This investigative story package examines some of the regulatory bounds of the practice, challenges it poses to child welfare interests, and how those issues impact the everyday lives of children being homeschooled. It was produced in Andy Lehren’s investigative reporting class, with an audio component produced in Narrative Podcast. You can read and listen to it at www.marysteffenhagen.com/capstone (password protected).

Classrooms Into Courtrooms, Naomi M. Mann

Faculty Scholarship

The federal Department of Education’s (DOE) 2020 Title IX Rule fundamentally transformed the relationship between postsecondary schools (schools) and students. While courts have long warned against turning classrooms into courtrooms, the 2020 Rule nonetheless imposed a mandatory quasi-criminal courtroom procedure for Title IX sexual harassment investigatory proceedings in schools. This transformation is a reflection of the larger trend of importing criminal law norms and due process protections into Title IX school proceedings. It is especially regressive at a time where calls for long-overdue criminal justice reform are reaching a boiling point across the nation. Its effects are especially troubling because …

It’S A Trap: A New Economic Model Addressing American Public Education, Nikhil A. Gulati

Notre Dame Law Review

This Note will argue that, when looking at the quality of a school district, there is some theoretical threshold that determines whether the use of local property tax and zoning by a local government will be effective in increasing the quality of the locality’s schools. This theoretical threshold is conceptually akin to the basic economic idea of a poverty trap. If a locality’s schools are above this quality threshold, the corresponding local government will be able to effectively utilize property taxes and zoning to increase the quality of its schools. However, if it is below the threshold, the local government …

Labor And Employment—Not Waiting For Superman: Collective Bargaining As An Affirmation Of Teachers' Value, Christopher Yeatman

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Historical Diagnosis Criterion Should Not Apply: Reasonable Accommodations In Standardized Testing For Individuals With A Later Diagnosis Of Adhd, Denise Elliot

Journal of Law and Policy

There is a growing number of adults being diagnosed with ADHD who were not diagnosed in childhood, misdiagnosed, or primarily exhibited symptoms in adulthood. Notably, most of the later diagnoses of ADHD in adults are individuals pursuing some level of higher education. Some of the reasons posited for this increase in ADHD diagnoses in higher education may be attributed to increased workloads, decreased structural and community supports, misdiagnosis in childhood, masking, and racial and socioeconomic factors that overlook subpopulations like children of color, female-presenting, and gender-nonbinary children with ADHD. Unfortunately, testing agencies that administer college entrance exams, graduate school entrance …

On The Outer Reaches Of The Marketplace Of Ideas: The Weaponization Of Title Vi Against Palestinian College Activists, Gavriella Fried

Journal of Law and Policy

On U.S. college campuses, Palestinian rights activists who are critical of Israel risk legal consequences. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in any program receiving federal funds. Over the past two decades, at least eighteen Title VI complaints have been filed against U.S. colleges and universities, alleging that Palestinian rights activists’ political expression is a form of anti-Semitism. In December 2019, President Trump promulgated Executive Order 13,899, which formally extended Title VI protections to Jews and directed enforcement agencies to investigate allegations of anti-Semitism using guidance that includes …

The Powerful Problem Of Prayer At Public School Board Meetings, Amanda Harmon Cooley

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Examining The Impact Of Covid-19 On Education, Onu Institute For Civics And Public Policy, Kaylee Ballou, Emma Blackburn, Sabrina Braun, Isaac Brooks, Rebecca Monce, Rachel Pickering, Drew Walker, Benjamin Wiggins

Critical Questions

The hardships of a world-wide pandemic is not without precedent. The infamous Spanish Flu, which was first discovered in 1918, lasted around 2 years and was proportionally more deadly than the current statistics from the COVID-19 pandemic. At its peak, the Spanish Flu infected around 40 percent of the global population and killed an estimated 50 million people. The labelling of the 1918 pandemic as the Spanish Flu came about because Spain was one of the only countries to report about the illness during World War I. Additionally, the king of Spain, Alfonso XIII, was one of the first major …

Perceptions Of The Mckinney-Vento Act Liaisons In Arkansas Public School Districts, Judy Renee Holaway

Student Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the perception of the effectiveness of the McKinney-Vento Act through the lens of the local school McKinney-Vento liaison. The McKinney-Vento Act is over three decades old and has been restructured many times in its 34-year lifespan. The study sample included Arkansas McKinney-Vento liaisons in the 253 local education association (LEA) in the state of Arkansas. In addition to each McKinney-Vento liaison having the opportunity to contribute to this study by responding to an online survey, six of these liaisons agreed to serve on a focus panel to look deeper into the effectiveness of the legislation and to …

Separate But Free, Joshua E. Weishart

Law Faculty Scholarship

“Separate but equal” legally sanctioned segregation in public schools until Brown. Ever since, separate but free has been the prevailing dogma excusing segregation. From “freedom of choice” plans that facilitated massive resistance to desegregation to current school choice plans exacerbating racial, socioeconomic, and disability segregation, proponents have venerated parental freedom as the overriding principle.

This Article contends that, in the field of public education, the dogma of separate but free has no place; separate is inherently unfree. As this Article uniquely clarifies, segregation deprives schoolchildren of freedom to become equal citizens and freedom to learn in democratic, integrated, …

Affirmative Action And The Leadership Pipeline, Joni Hersch

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Recent events have brought heightened attention to racial injustice in the United States, which includes among its legacies a dearth of Black people in influential positions that shape society. But at the same time that the United States has turned its attention to diversity in leadership positions, the already narrow pipeline for those from underrepresented groups is likely to narrow even further in the near future. Specifically, the pipeline to influential positions in society typically flows from an elite education. Race-conscious affirmative action in higher education admissions is currently permitted in order for universities to meet their compelling interest in …

Immunity Confusion: Why Are Ohio Courts Unable To Apply A Clear Immunity Standard In School-Bullying Cases?, Liam Mcmillin

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Accountability And Private-School Choice, Nicole Stelle Garnett

Books

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• The Parental-Choice Landscape
• Accountability and Parental Choice
• Accountability in Current Choice Programs
• The Challenges of Accountability in the Private-School-Choice Context
• Optimal Accountability for Chosen Schools
• Conclusion: Beyond Academic Accountability
• Endnotes
• About the Author

Removing Police From Schools Using State Law Heightened Scrutiny, Christina Payne-Tsoupros

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

This Article argues that school police, often called school resource officers, interfere with the state law right to education and proposes using the constitutional right to education under state law as a mechanism to remove police from schools.

Disparities in school discipline for Black and brown children are well-known. After discussing the legal structures of school policing, this Article uses the Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) theoretical framework developed by Subini Annamma, David Connor, and Beth Ferri to explain why police are unacceptable in schools. Operating under the premise that school police are unacceptable, this Article then analyzes mechanisms to …

Education, Antidomination, And The Republican Guarantee, Kip M. Hustace

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

This Article offers a new interpretation of the United States Constitution’s republican guarantee and theorizes its protection of a fundamental right to education. Courts and education law scholars have identified the republican guarantee as a plausible source of educational rights but have not detailed how. Drawing on recent work by legal scholars, historians, political scientists, and philosophers, this Article reinterprets the guarantee as the federal government’s obligation to secure freedom as nondomination, and it argues that excellent, equitable public education is necessary to fulfilling this duty. Nondomination, a robust conception of freedom, is freedom from subjection to the will of …

What Is Wrong With Intimate Partner Abuse And Why It's Criminalization Might Not Be Right, Galia Schneebaum

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

Considering a contemporary debate between United States ("US') and United Kingdom ("UK') approaches, this article probes the appropriateness of criminalizing non-violent abuse in intimate partner relationships. Criminal lawyers in the US and the UK are divided on prohibiting intimate partner abuse. Whereas US jurisdictions retain a traditionalfocus on physical injury, England and Wales enforce a novel prohibition on "controlling or coercive behavior," covering conduct such as micromanaging intimate partners'schedules or restricting their behaviors through rules. While the US approach has been criticized as conservative, this article questions the progressiveness of the UK approach. It suggests, first, that in prohibiting "controlling …

Caring For The Souls Of Our Students: The Evolution Of A Community Economic Development Clinic During Turbulent Times, Gowri Krishna, Kelly Pfeifer, Dana Thompson

Articles & Chapters

Community Economic Development (CED) clinicians regularly address issues surrounding economic, racial, and social justice, as those are the core principles motivating their work to promote vibrant, diverse, and sustainable communities. When COVID-19 arrived, and heightened attention to police brutality and racial injustice ensued, CED clinicians focused not only on how to begin to address these issues in their clinics, but on how to discuss these issues more deeply and effectively with their students. This essay highlights the ways in which the pandemic school year influenced significant rethinking of one CED clinic’s operations: first, the pandemic sharpened the clinic’s mission to …

Reform, Retrench, Repeat: The Campaign Against Critical Race Theory, Through The Lens Of Critical Race Theory, Vivian E. Hamilton

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

The protest movement ignited by the 2020 murder of George Floyd was of a scale unprecedented in U.S. history. The movement raised the nation’s consciousness of racial injustices and spurred promises—and the beginnings—of justice-oriented reform. Reform and racial progress, however, have rarely been linear over the course of U.S. history. Instead, they typically engender resistance and retrenchment. The response to the current justice movement is no exception. One manifestation of the retrenchment has been a rush by states to enact legislation curtailing race-related education in government workplaces and in public schools, colleges, and universities.

These legislative measures purport to prevent …

The Right To Education Under State Constitutions As Applied To Juvenile Delinquents, Laurenne Ferber-Kaufmna

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note argues that while the U.S. Constitution does not guarantee a fundamental right to education, many state constitutions, including New York's, explicitly recognize this right for children. It contends that juvenile offenders in New York prisons are entitled to the same educational rights as other children under the state's education clause but are currently not receiving an adequate education that meets state standards. The note advocates for reforms to align New York's juvenile education system with its constitutional obligations and suggests adopting practices from other states, such as Florida and Virginia, to improve educational outcomes for juvenile offenders.

Changing The Student Loan Dischargeability Framework: How The Department Of Education Can Ease The Path For Borrowers In Bankruptcy, Pamela Foohey, Aaron S. Ament, Daniel A. Zibel

Articles

The United States' consumer bankruptcy system supposedly gives "honest but unfortunate" individuals "a new opportunity in life with a clear field for future effort, unhampered by the pressure and discouragement of preexisting debt." Access to bankruptcy's discharge of debt is especially important in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has resulted in a once-in-a-century economic crisis that is projected to increase bankruptcy filings by people struggling to recover. Those who file bankruptcy will find a system that is already difficult to navigate and has long-recognized racial and gender disparities in access and outcomes.

Student loan borrowers will find a …

Taxing The Ivory Tower: Evaluating The Excise Tax On University Endowments, Jennifer Bird-Pollan

Pepperdine Law Review

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 introduced the first-ever excise tax imposed on the investment income of university endowments. While it is a relatively small tax, this new law is a first step towards the exploration of taxing non-profit entities on the vast sums of wealth they hold in their endowments. In this essay I take the new tax as a starting place for investigating the justification for tax exemption for universities and thinking through the consequences of changing our approach, both in the form of the new excise tax and possible alternatives. There remain reasons to be …

Intent, Inequality, And The Berlin Walls Of The Mind, Bobby L. Dexter

Pepperdine Law Review

Although acknowledging that various provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 appear responsive to normative arguments presented in tax literature, this article posits that, true to its core intent, the law aggressively advanced the persistent effort to shift the tax burden away from the nation’s wealthiest citizens to the great bulk of taxpayers of more modest financial means. Thus, those with political power successfully employed the tax law to protect, preserve, and enhance prevailing wealth and income inequality. With the election of President Joe Biden and the assumption of Democratic control in both chambers of Congress, however, …

Constitutional Law—Fourth Amendment Search And Seizure—Online Schools During A Pandemic: Fourth Amendment Implications When The State Requires Your Child To Turn On The Camera And Microphone Inside Your Home, Conan N. Becknell

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Access To University Education By Learners With Physical Disabilities: Combating The Barriers, Edwin O. Abuya, Jane W. Githinji

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Due Process On Campus: Where Do Procedural Rights Come From, And What Do They Require?, R. George Wright

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

It's Alright, Ma, It's Life And Life Only: Have Universities Been Meeting Their Legal Obligations To High-Risk Faculty During The Pandemic?, Gary J. Simson, Mark L. Jones, Cathren K. Page, Suzianne D. Painter-Thorne

Pepperdine Law Review

Even those universities most firmly committed to returning to in-person instruction in fall semester 2020 recognized that for health reasons some exceptions would need to be made. The CDC had identified two groups—people age sixty-five and over and people with certain medical conditions—as persons "at increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19," and it had spelled out various special precautions they should take to avoid contracting the virus. Given the CDC's unique stature, universities very reasonably could have been expected to grant exceptions to faculty falling into either group, but that's not what many universities did. We argue that, properly …

Homeward Bound: The Current Rise Of Homeschooling And The Need For Regulation, Mary Fletcher

SLU Law Journal Online

With the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of American homeschoolers has drastically increased. While all fifty states have passed legislation allowing for homeschooling, regulations of homeschooling vary from state-to-state, with some states having virtually no regulation at all. In this essay, Mary Fletcher examines homeschooling laws and discusses the need for consistent federal regulation to ensure that homeschooled students receive an adequate education.