Education Law Commons^™

Stop With The Exceptions: A Narrow Interpretation Of Tinker For All Student Speech Claims, Matthew Sheffield

Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal

The article examines the evolution of First Amendment rights for students in public schools, focusing on the landmark *Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District* decision and its subsequent interpretations. While Tinker established that students retain their constitutional rights in schools, later Supreme Court rulings, such as Fraser, Hazelwood, and Morse, have narrowed its application, balancing student free speech against school administrative concerns. The article argues that these post-Tinker decisions are consistent with the original intent of Tinker and advocate for a narrow application of its principles to maintain equilibrium between student rights and school authority.

Raising The Kindergarten Entry Age, Misty Newcomb, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

In recent years, the standards in Arkansas for entry into kindergarten underwent changes that can be difficult to understand. Across the nation, states have increased the minimum age of entry into public schools, and Arkansas is no exception. Recently, a policymaker in our state asked the OEP to look into the research surrounding the question of raising the kindergarten entry age. This policy brief discusses the new requirements as well as the impact of these requirements on families and children in the short and long term by looking at recent changes in Arkansas law and studies concerning the effect of …

Sext Me L8ter: The Legal Conundrum Of Sexting In Schools And A Plan For Schools To Stop It, Bethany L. Arliss

Buffalo Journal of Gender, Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

The Promise Of Grutter: Diverse Interactions At The University Of Michigan Law School, Meera E. Deo

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

In Grutter v. Bollinger, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld affirmative action at the University of Michigan Law School on the grounds of educational diversity. Yet the Court's assumption that admitting diverse students into law school would result in improved race relations, livelier classroom conversations, and better professional outcomes for students has never been empirically tested. This Article relies on survey and focus group data collected at the University of Michigan Lav School campus itself in March 2010 to examine not only whether, but how diversity affects learning. The data indicate both that there are sufficient numbers of students of color …

Student Loans In Bankruptcy And The "Undue Hardship" Exception: Who Should Foot The Bill?, Kyle L. Grant

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Are Food Subsidies Making Our Kids Fat? Tensions Between The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act And The Farm Bill, Melissa D. Mortazavi

Washington and Lee Law Review

On December 15, 2010, President Obama signed the Healthy Hunger- Free Kids Act of 2010 (HHFKA)1 into law. It was hailed as a bipartisan success and a significant reform of childhood nutrition policy. Indeed, on its surface the law appears to make a significant shift away from the food paradigm of the past. However, upon closer examination, it fails to unwind the tangled connections between domestic eating habits and longstanding farm subsidies. This Article breaks new ground in several ways: First, it is one of the first essays in the emerging and underexplored field of food law, a crosssection of …

When Districts Are Taken Over By The State, Nathan C. Jensen, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

Two types of state takeovers have been in the news this summer. The news extensively covered the state takeover of Helena-West Helena School District and Pulaski County Special School District due to fiscal issues. At their August meeting, State Board of Education members discussed amending the Academic Distress Rules in a manner that would more easily enable state takeovers on the basis of academic distress. This policy brief discusses the various classifications that might lead to a state takeover and the subsequent implications of such classifications. According to Arkansas law, namely The Omnibus Quality of Education Act of 2003, schools …

2011 Arkansas Benchmark Test Results: District By District Scores, Nathan C. Jensen, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

One day after the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) released the results from the spring 2011 Arkansas Benchmark exams, the OEP received a call from a local constituent asking how districts in Northwest Arkansas compared to the rest of the state. Surprisingly, this type of question - often asked by educators, policymakers, researchers, parents, and concerned citizens - is not that easy to answer by simply glancing at the ADE-provided data. 1 Therefore, we put together a little policy brief to make the data more clearly understood.

Holding Schools Accountable For Their Sex-Ed Curricula, Rena M. Lindevaldsen

Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article examines the legal and policy implications that arise when a school district decides to instruct students on issues concerning same-sex attractions. As more states afford legal recognition to same-sex relationships and adopt non-discrimination codes that include sexual orientation, schools are faced with the decision of what, when, and how to teach children about same-sex attractions. Providing instruction on this divisive issue is fraught with conflict as views and beliefs on the topic are deeply-held, diverse, and often politically charged. In disputes concerning other sensitive topics, courts long have afforded schools broad discretion to implement curriculum without interference from …

Education Reform Litigation In Nevada: Is The Nevada Legislature Neglecting Its Constitutional Duties?, K Nicholas Portz

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

To Lynch A Child: Bullying And Gender Nonconformity In Our Nation's Schools, Michael J. Higdon

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Purpose And Effects: Viewpoint-Discriminatory Closure Of A Designated Public Forum, Kerry L. Monroe

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In early 2010, amidst a series of racially charged incidents on campus, the student government president at the University of California at San Diego revoked funding to all student media organizations in response to controversial speech on the student-run television station. It is well established that once the government has opened a forum, including a "metaphysical" forum constituted by government funding for private speech, it may not discriminate based on the viewpoints expressed within that forum. However, it has not been clearly established whether the government may close such a forum for a viewpoint-discriminatory purpose. This Note argues that courts …

Truth, Justice, And The Libertarian Way(S), Gary S. Lawson

Faculty Scholarship

More than twenty years ago, I was commissioned to write an article – my very first scholarly article – on “the ethics of insider trading” (this was hot on the heels of the Ivan Boesky insider-trading scandal of the mid-1980s).1 After tracing philosophical debates concerning the morality of exchanges based on unequal information from Cicero and Aquinas through Henry Manne and Frank Easterbrook,2 I had to decide what I could responsibly say in a scholarly work as a matter of substantive moral theory about the practice of insider trading – and derivatively what it would be appropriate to say normatively …

Holding To A Moral Compass Against The Pull Of Profits, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Assistant Professor Eugene Tan writes that as Singapore society becomes more complex, our law schools cannot just produce good legal technicians but are challenged to produce lawyers who are innovators and can utilize the law creatively to produce effective and efficient outcomes, and solutions infused with social justice and fairness. Today, the first batch of SMU law students comprising 106 LLB and 17 Juris Doctor degree students graduates.

Schoolhouse Rock: Lessons Of Homosexual Tolerance In Keeton V. Anderson-Wiley From The Classroom To The Constitution, Billie Pritchard

Mercer Law Review

The public educational system is charged with more than the academic success of America's youth. Educators are responsible for "nurtur[ing] students social and moral development by transmitting to them an official dogma of community values." As Keeton v. Anderson-Wiley demonstrates, community values are rapidly changing to acknowledge new constructions of homosexual identity and constitutional interests relative to historically marginalized attributes. In Keeton the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia denied a preliminary injunction to a student asserting various First Amendment claims against her university for requiring her to complete remedial training for counseling gay, lesbian, bisexual, …

Due Process, Fundamental Fairness, And Judicial Deference: The Illusory Difference Between State And Private Educational Institution Disciplinary Legal Requirements, Paul Smith

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “The educational process at a college or university, where students often experience new-found freedom, includes adherence to academic and behavioral standards. The institution may impose sanctions on students for breaching these standards. Prior to imposing a sanction, however, an institution must provide the student with a sufficient level of process or risk judicial invalidation of the sanction.

Courts distinguish the process due a student attending a state institution from the process due a student attending a private institution. Related to this distinction is the judicial claim that courts grant discretion to a private institution’s judgment regarding discipline for academic, …

Tinker At A Breaking Point: Why The Specter Of Cyberbullying Cannot Excuse Impermissible Public School Regulation Of Off-Campus Student Speech, Allison Belnap

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Coordinating Loan Repayment Assistance Programs With New Federal Legislation, Philip G. Schrag, Charles Pruett

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

For decades, law school administrators, faculty members, students and graduates have worried about the problem of the ever-increasing cost of attendance at the nation’s law schools, and the rapidly rising average debt of graduating law students. The problem was particularly acute for students who desired careers in public service, because starting salaries in the government and non-profit sectors failed to keep pace with the increase in educational debt of law school graduates. In response, many law schools created loan repayment assistance programs (LRAPs), through which they subsidized loan repayment for some or all of their graduates who undertook public service …

Religious And Political Virtues And Values In Congruence Or Conflict?: On Smith, Bob Jones University, And Christian Legal Society, Linda C. Mcclain

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Leveling Localism And Racial Inequality In Education Through The No Child Left Behind Act Public Choice Provision, Erika K. Wilson

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

School district boundary lines play a pivotal role in shaping students' educational opportunities. Living on one side of a school district boundary rather than another can mean the difference between being able to attend a high-achieving resource-enriched school or having to attend a low-achieving resource-deprived school. Despite the prominent role that school district boundary lines play in dictating educational opportunities for students, remedies formulated by the federal judiciary-the institution frequently looked upon to address issues of school segregation and inequality-are ineffective in ameliorating disparities between school districts. They are ineffective because the federal judiciary evidences a doctrinal preference for localism …