Education Law Commons^™

The Promise Of Equality: Reflections On The Post-Brown Era In Virginia, Robert R. Mehrige Jr.

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reflections On Brown And The Future, Oliver W. Hill Sr.

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Education Law, D. Patrick Lacy Jr., Kathleen S. Mehfoud

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

School Funding Litigation: Who's Winning The War?, John Dayton, Anne Proffitt Dupre

Scholarly Works

This Article examines how the landscape of school funding litigation has changed over the three decades since Serrano and Rodriguez. The first part of the Article sets forth the history of school funding litigation since Serrano and Rodriguez and unravels the legal theories that have driven the school financing cases, explaining past dispositions and point out likely future trends. At first blush it would appear that the attorneys seeking social change through greater equity in school funding are litigating similar issues in each state. Yet judges have approached these matters from different directions with results that vary significantly from state …

Abstinence-Only Adolescent Education: Ineffective, Unpopular And Unconstitutional, James J. Mcgrath

ExpressO

This article examines the recent changes in the funding of “abstinence only” educational programs that attempt to reduce the incidence of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Although funding for these programs was previously ruled to be facially constitutional, this is no longer the case as their lack of efficacy for their stated purpose has been exposed. Newer programs are in direct violation of unconstitutional conditions doctrine, and none of these programs address a significant segment of the student population, lesbian and gay students. My article addresses this oversight as dangerous public health policy as well as a potential constitutional …

Memphis Sings 'Soul' Music, Rural Does Country: School Finance Litigation In Tennessee, Lee A. Harris

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

No abstract provided.

Reform Or Retrenchment: Single Sex Education And The Construction Of Race And Gender, Verna L. Williams

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

As parents, policymakers, and educators search for solutions to the crisis in the nation's public schools, single sex education emerges time and again as a promising strategy, particularly for African American students. This article argues that, in order to comprehend fully the implications of single sex schooling in inner city schools, examining the history of sex-based and race-based segregation in education is essential.

History demonstrates that sex and racial segregation in education has supported gender and hierarchies and the attendant subordination of African Americans and white women. For example, when public education became available for Blacks, its primary purpose was …

Disability Law And Higher Education: A Road Map For Where We've Been And Where We May Be Heading, Laura Rothstein

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Legislating Accountability: Standards, Sanctions, And School District Reform , Aaron J. Saiger

Faculty Scholarship

The “New Accountability” movement in American education purports to catalyze improvement in American education by setting clear state standards for academic performance, measuring performance against those standards, and disseminating information about results. This Article argues that the potential of state accountability programs lies not in their imposition of standards but in their imposition of a sanction - the disestablishment of school districts, which entails unseating the local superintendent and school board and replacing them with state officials or their designees - that is extremely painful for the targeted district but is also painful for states to impose. The first Part …

Campaign For Fiscal Equity, Inc. V. State, Oreen Chay

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

One Strike And You're Out? Constitutional Constraints On Zero Tolerance In Public Education, Eric D. Blumenson, Eva Nilsen

Faculty Scholarship

Various studies reported that juvenile crimes of violence fell in the 1990s by as much as 30%. ¹⁰ In high schools specifically, the incidence of threatening behavior in 1996 changed little from two decades earlier, ¹¹ with the chances of being killed in school far less than being struck by lighting. ¹² The "juvenile crime bomb" proved illusory (as Delulio himself eventually acknowledged ¹³), but the severe measures designed to deal with it remain entrenched. Zero tolerance has taken on a life of its own, partly because public misperception remains high, ¹⁴ and partly because in our hardheaded times …

Edison Schools And The Privatization Of K-12 Public Education: A Legal And Policy Analysis, Lewis D. Solomon

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Article examines the private takeover of the management of K-12 publicly funded schools. It focuses on one particular educational management organization, Edison Schools. This Article examines the situation in Philadelphia's public schools and the efforts of a local school reform commission to revitalize K-12 education. It goes on to look into the personalities of those who started and today run Edison Schools, analyze Edison Schools financial position, and discuss the structured educational approach Edison Schools uses in it schools. This Article addresses the policy considerations behind the efforts to privatize public schools. It concludes that while Edison Schools does …

From Equity To Adequacy: The Legal Battle For Increased State Funding Of Poor School Districts In New York, Brian J. Nickerson, Gernard M. Deenihan

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Article evaluates the influence of federal courts' school finance cases on the New York school finance groups' decision to litigate in the New York courts. It then analyzes the importance of other states' legal precedents in school finance cases as a factor influencing interest groups in New York to challenge the state's public education funding formulas. This Article discusses the progression of public elementary and secondary school funding formula litigation in New York, focusing on the legal arguments raised by various interest group-plaintiffs and tracing the development of those arguments to school finance cases in other states. The conclusion …

Examining How The Inclusion Of Disabled Students Into The General Classroom May Affect Non-Disabled Classmates, Marissa L. Antoinette

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Comment discusses the effectiveness of the inclusion of disabled students in general classrooms, focusing particularly on the effects on non-disabled classmates. Part I of this Comment outlines the history of inclusion as established through federal legislation, as well as its gradual implementation in New York City. Part II examines the issues concerning inclusion, looking at the consequences inappropriate inclusion of disabled students may have on the non-disabled ("general") student. Finally, Part III proposes a solution, suggesting that a school district give a disabled student a "three strikes" policy regarding disruptions, after which she may be removed, permanently or temporarily, …

A New Era In Humane Education: How Troubling Youth Trends And A Call For Character Education Are Breathing New Life Into Efforts To Educate Our Youth About The Value Of All Life, Lydia S. Antoncic

Animal Law Review

The purpose of education is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions, to say to himself this is black or this is white, to decide for himself whether there is a God in heaven or not. To ask questions of the universe, and then to learn to live with those questions, is the way he achieves his own identity. But no society is really anxious to have that kind of person around. What societies really, ideally want is a citizenry which will simply obey the rules of society. …

Jon Newman’S Theory Of Disparagement And The First Amendment In The Administrative State, Edward L. Rubin

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Public Education As Public Space: Some Reflections On The Unfinished Work Of Marc Feldman, Richard C. Boldt

Maryland Law Review

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.

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 …

Confronting Same-Sex, Student-To-Student Sexual Harassment: Recommendations For Educators And Policy Makers, Thomas A. Mayes

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Student-on-student sexual harassment has been the subject of significant scholarly commentary and numerous court battles. In light of the United States Supreme Court's decision in Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education, which held that in certain cases students have a cause of action under Title IX against schools for peer sexual harassment, many schools have been advised to consider responses to and ways to prevent student-on-student sexual harassment. When considering corrective and preventative approaches to peer sexual harassment in the schools, educators and policy makers should strongly consider addressing same-sex harassment. Prior to its decision in Davis, a unanimous …

The Education Justice: The Honorable Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr., Victoria J. Dodd

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The Honorable Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr. is “the education Justice” of the United States. During his tenure on the U.S. Supreme Court, from 1971 to 1987, Justice Powell authored at least twenty major opinions in education law, in addition to numerous significant concurrences and dissents. Just a sampling of Justice Powell's majority opinions on education could form the bulk of an education law textbook recognizable by any American law student. This Article will explore some of Justice Powell's major Supreme Court rulings in education law. It will also consider how these rulings may have related to aspects of Justice Powell's …

Unequal Educational Opportunities For Gifted Students: Robbing Peter To Pay Paul?, Charles J. Russo

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Brown ushered in an era that has led to admirable, yet arguably incomplete, gains in equal educational opportunities for all children, most notably minorities, females, and students with disabilities. However, despite the progress that has been made in the struggle for educational equality, many exceptional students are not being fully served. Aside from commission reports and rhetoric, little has been done at either the federal or state level to offer appropriate programming for gifted and talented children's educational needs. It is questionable whether educational leaders and policy makers have taken sufficient steps to meet the educational needs of gifted children. …

Diversity Efforts In Independent Schools , Michael Brosnan

Fordham Urban Law Journal

In recent years, independent schools have begun committing themselves to diversity. Schools are recruiting more students and teachers of color and have transformed their curriculum to better address race, gender, class religion, and sexual orientation. Schools must start marketing themselves to a broad spectrum of families, teachers, and administrators, and have done so in order to prepare students for the adult world to come. Schools need to hire and retain teachers of color. To achieve this, some overlapping efforts by schools include: creating the need to hire teachers of color with the school's mission, clarifying the school's climate and culture, …

A Study Of The Legislative History And Legal Administrative Impact Of The Arkansas Teacher Fair Dismissal Act, William "Dubs" Byers

Theses and Dissertations

The Arkansas Teacher Fair Dismissal Act provides the legal procedure for dismissing teachers from public schools in Arkansas. The purpose of the study was to examine the impact of the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act on the employment practices of schools in Arkansas. The study examined the legislative intent of the Act, how the courts have refined the issues of the Act, the level of knowledge about the Act among principals, and perceptions of principals relating to the effect of the Act. The study included both quantitative and qualitative research. Eight interviews were held with legislative and educational leaders. Legislative material …

The Children's School: Lessons For Inclusion, Leadership, And School Success, Beth Lief

Fordham Urban Law Journal

In recent years education has evolved into the country's number one public concern. Presidential, gubernatorial, mayoral, and legislative candidates all claim to care about educating our children. Successful schools should be used by educators and policy-makers as models. In order to reproduce the success of these schools, the reasons for their success must be identified. A school's achievement data gives important indications of why it succeeds. There are also innumerable studies and reports listing factors enabling school success. The Children's School in Brooklyn, New York is a school worthy of study. The leadership is superb; teachers know their students and …

Transforming Education: The Lesson From Argentina, Anne P. Dupre

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article traces education reforms in Argentina from the colonial period to the present. Specifically, the Article focuses on La Ley Federal de Educacion, passed in 1993, which sought to reform primary and secondary education throughout Argentina by promoting educational equity through a just distribution of educational services and opportunity.

The Article begins with a description of the current Argentine federal republic and the relationship of the federal government and the provinces. Next, the Article describes the development of the Argentine education system.

It continues by explaining the backdrop of the adoption of Ley Federal. The Author describes the act's …

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 …

Religion And Education: Whither The Establishment Clause?, Martha Mccarthy

Indiana Law Journal

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

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 …

Do Minorities Really Benefit? The Untold Truth About Vouchers, Marie A. Galindo

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Abstract forthcoming