Education Law Commons^™

State Constitutions And Individual Rights: Conceptual Convergence In School Finance Litigation, Scott R. Bauries

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This Article begins by reviewing Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld's “fundamental conceptions” and expanding his theory to the arena of state constitutional rights, building on recent work by other scholars. From this foundation, it moves to a discussion of the sources of rights to education. The Article then examines the text of relevant state constitutional provisions, as well as the ever-changing landscape of school finance litigation, the principal vehicle through which litigants assert constitutional claims based on ostensible education rights. Next, it systematically analyzes the population of reported cases from the highest state courts to identify Hohfeldian conceptions of education rights held …

Can Allocation By Sortition Resolve The Connecticut Education-Financing Impasse?, A. E. Rodriguez, Lesley Denardis

Political Science & Global Affairs Faculty Publications

It has been over 40 years since Connecticut amended its Constitution to ensure citizens a right to a free public education. Despite the constitutionally prescribed right, dramatic inequities in educational conditions continued to characterize the state's K-12 educational system, especially between suburban/rural white and urban minority school districts. In the 1970s plaintiffs challenged the prevailing mechanism for allocating education funds with a host of court cases that tackled the thorny question of how much financial responsibility the state should assume to equalize the spending disparities between school districts. Prodded by court decisions, many formulas and approaches have been proposed by …

Students' Fourth Amendment Rights In Schools: Strip Searches, Drug Tests, And More, Emily Gold Waldman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

At the end of June 2009, the Supreme Court decided Safford Unified School District No. 1 v. Redding, a case involving the strip search of a thirteen-year-old girl at an Arizona middle school. Thus, the Court has now decided four cases regarding public school students' Fourth Amendment rights while at school and the time is ripe to take stock of this jurisprudence as a whole. The following discussion provides such an overview. As an initial matter, it is useful to divide the Court's four Fourth Amendment cases into two categories: (1) cases involving suspicion-based searches of individual students, such as …

Badmouthing Authority: Hostile Speech About School Officials And The Limits Of School Restrictions, Emily Gold Waldman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The Article's first two parts discuss the extent to which schools can legally restrict hostile student speech about school officials, should they choose to do so. Part I examines how courts have traditionally approached hostile student speech about school officials when it occurs at school, and Part II then considers how courts have been analyzing the issue when it moves off campus. In the course of this discussion, the Article identifies three key categories of such speech: (1) speech that arguably threatens toward a school official; (2) speech that is primarily vulgar about a school official; and (3) the most …

Protecting The Ivory Tower: Sensible Security Or Invasion Of Privacy, Stephen D. Lichtenstein

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

Our beginning point is a recognition that the modern American college is not an insurer of the safety of its students. Whatever may have been its responsibility in an earlier era, the authoritarian role of today's college administrations has been notably diluted in recent decades. Trustees, administrators, and faculties have been required to yield to the expanding rights and privileges of their students. By constitutional amendment, written and unwritten law, and through the evolution of new customs, rights formerly possessed by college administrations have been transferred to students. College students today are no longer ninors; they are now regarded as …

Back On The Books: The Illinois Silent Reflection And Student Prayer Act, Brendan Brassil

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

The Cps Evaluation Backlog: A Roadblock To Educational Success, Kathryn Kokoczka

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

From Crayons To Handcuffs: An Investigation Of Elementarly School Discipline, Laura Knittle

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Why Can't We Be "Friends?" Student-Teacher Relationships In The Facebook Age, Lynsey Stewart

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

The Fifth Freedom: The Constitutional Duty To Provide Public Education, Areto A. Imoukuede

Journal Publications

This Article explains why there is a fundamental duty for the government to provide public education under the U.S. Constitution. Numerous scholars and public officials have written on the need to overrule San Antonio v. Rodriguez or adopt alternative approaches to recognizing a right to public education either judicially or by way of constitutional amendment. This Article identifies a consistent and systemic reluctance by the Court to meaningfully enforce positive rights, which are the duties that the government owes to the people. In doing so, it explores the consistent recognition throughout American history that education is a fundamental duty of …

Top Jobs Act Higher Education Reform Legislation, Mark E. Rubin

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

The most important piece of legislation affecting higher educa- tion passed by the 2011 Virginia General Assembly was Governor McDonnell's higher education reform bill. The title of the bill is quite expressive-"Preparing for the Top Jobs of the 21st Century: The Virginia Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2011," or "TJ21.", It is significant because of its breadth, its innovative ap- proach to funding, and the government relations strategy utilized to assure its passage.

Profiting From Not For Profit: Toward Adequate Humanities Instruction In American K-12 Schools, Eli Savit

Michigan Law Review

Martha Nussbaum' describes Not For Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities-her paean to a humanities-rich education-as a "manifesto, not an empirical study" (p. 121). Drawing on contemporary psychological research and classic pedagogical theories, Nussbaum convincingly argues that scholastic instruction in the humanities is a critical tool in shaping democratic citizens. Nussbaum shows how the study of subjects like literature, history, philosophy, and art helps students build essential democratic capacities like empathy and critical thought. Through myriad examples and anecdotes, Not For Profit sketches an appealing vision of what an ideal education should be in a democracy.

A Winn For Educational Pluralism, Nicole Stelle Garnett

Journal Articles

This short essay takes as its starting point on the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Winn v. Arizona Christian Tuition Organization, which involved an Establishment Clause challenge to Arizona’s scholarship tax program — a school-choice device that provides tax credits from state income taxes for donations to organizations granting scholarship to private K-12 schools. In Winn, a divided court ruled that taxpayers lack standing to challenge this and other tax credit programs — thereby dramatically limiting the Flast v. Cohen exception to the no-taxpayer-standing rule. The essay makes the case that the Winn will promote authentic educational pluralism by clearing …

Racial Perspectives On Eligibility For Special Education For Students Of Color Who Are Struggling, Is Special Education A Potential Evil Or A Potential Good?, Jonathan Feldman

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Anything But Academic: How Copyright’S Work-For-Hire Doctrine Affects Professors, Graduate Students, And K-12 Teachers In The Information Age, Nathaniel S. Strauss

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

In 1938, the original designers of the Superman comic book figure assigned their ownership rights to DC Comics for $130. On January 1, 2013, their heirs plan to reclaim those rights in court. The impending Superman litigation will herald a wave of a new type of action, known as copyright termination. The Copyright Act of 1976 (“Copyright Act”) granted the original authors of creative works the right to recover rights assigned to publishers, media companies, and other parties, after a period of thirty-five years. Since the Copyright Act became effective on January 1, 1978, the original authors may first assert …

The Common School Before And After Brown: Democracy, Equality, And The Productivity Agenda, Rosemary C. Salomone

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

In recent years, economic forces of global magnitude have placed the substance and value of education in the national spotlight. With jobs for college graduates in short supply, political pundits and news commentators have placed different estimates on the worth of a college degree and the continued utility of the liberal arts. Economists tie specific educational factors to future income. A high school diploma, we are told, can translate into an additional $300,000 in lifetime salary. A highly effective kindergarten teacher likewise carries a value-added benefit of $320,000, the additional income that a classroom of today’s students may earn …

The Curious Life Of In Loco Parentis At American Universities, Philip Lee

Faculty Publications

In this article I trace the legal history, through court opinions, of in loco parentis (Latin for “in the place of the parent”) as applied to the relationship between American universities and their students. I demonstrate that until the 1960s, the in loco parentis doctrine allowed universities to exercise great discretion in developing the “character” of their students without respect to their students’ constitutional rights. The demise of this doctrine forced courts, and universities themselves, to redefine the relationship of universities with their students in important ways.

Ending The Disconnect For The Deaf Community: How Amendments To The Federal Regulations Can Realign The Ada With Its Purpose, Hayley M. Koteen

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Going Pro In Sports: Providing Guidance To Student-Athletes In A Complicated Legal & Regulatory Environment, Glenn M. Wong, Warren Zola, Chris Deubert

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

One Web To Unite Us All: Bridging The Digital Divide, Brooke Menschel

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.