Education Law Commons^™

The Failure Of Education Federalism, Kristi L. Bowman

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Since the Great Recession of 2007–09, states have devoted even less money to public education and state courts have become even more hostile to structural reform litigation that has sought to challenge education funding and quality. Yet the current model of education federalism (dual federalism) leaves these matters largely to the states. As a result, state-level legislative inaction, executive acquiescence, and judicial abdication can combine to create a situation in which the quality of traditional public schools declines sharply. This is the case in Michigan, which is an unusually important state not only because the dynamics that are emerging in …

From No Child Left Behind To Every Student Succeeds: Back To A Future For Education Federalism, Michael Heise

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

When passed in 2001, the No Child Left Behind Act represented the federal government’s most dramatic foray into the elementary and secondary public school policymaking terrain. While critics emphasized the Act’s overreliance on standardized testing and its reduced school district and state autonomy, proponents lauded the Act’s goal to close the achievement gap between middle- and upper-middle-class students and students historically ill served by their schools. Whatever structural changes the No Child Left Behind Act achieved, however, were largely undone in 2015 by the Every Student Succeeds Act, which repositioned significant federal education policy control in state governments. From a …

Two Cheers For Evidence: Law, Research, And Values In Education Policymaking And Beyond, Eloise Pasachoff

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The newest federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA), reflects a recent turn toward basing social policy on research evidence. Proponents suggest that evidence-based policymaking in education and other social policy areas can help cut through ideological debate and provide meaningful limits on the choices made by the federal executive branch, states, and localities. This Essay argues that such hopes for evidence-based policymaking are overambitious. It first analyzes the evidence provisions in ESSA and demonstrates how little they constrain policy choices. It then assesses the limits of the research base in education, showing how little agreement …

Another Season Of Record-Breaking International Moot Court Achievements (Smu), Siyuan Chen, Eunice Chua

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

It was written in previous articles in this publication that both Singapore law schools participating in international moot court competitions have been putting up impressive results in the last few years. As the latest moot season draws to a close, we are happy to report that 2016/17 has been another good season for Singapore mooters. NUS and SMU reached a total of 12 international championship finals between them during this period, and ordered chronologically.

Assessing Law Students As Reflective Practitioners, Margaret Reuter

Faculty Works

We begin with two premises. One, legal educators, particularly clinical faculty who teach experiential courses, aim for their students to become reflective practitioners. Two, despite the highly personal nature of reflection, law faculty can assess law students’ ability to reflect meaningfully by reviewing and evaluating their reflective journals and essays. This is a story about the three authors of this essay: the genesis of our teaching techniques in reflective practice; how we discovered our similar approaches to assessing reflective practice; and how we have embarked on a project to discover whether a rubric we developed collectively can become the basis …

Why Kindergarten Is Too Late: The Need For Early Childhood Remedies In School Finance Litigation, Kevin Woodson

Arkansas Law Review

In 2006, Jim Ryan, then a law professor, now dean of Harvard University’s School of Education, published A Constitutional Right to Preschool, a seminal article that argued that courts should require states to fund public preschools as a means of abiding by their constitutional obligations to provide all children adequate educational opportunities. Though very few courts have ever imposed such a requirement, and all but one of these rulings have been eliminated on appeal, Ryan noted the political popularity of universal preschool and a growing trend among states to provide free pre-kindergarten as grounds for optimism that courts might be …

Education Litigation, Kevin T. Baine

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Fisher V. University Of Texas At Austin: Navigating The Narrows Between Grutter And Parents Involved, Kimberly A. Pacelli

Maine Law Review

Universities’ use of race as a factor in their admissions decisions has been a divisive issue both in the legal system and in political discourse. Opponents of affirmative action have challenged racial preferences in public university admissions under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Individuals who find themselves denied a coveted seat in a university class and suspect that racial preferences are to blame will often challenge their rejection as a denial of their state’s “equal protection of the laws.” The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently considered whether the University of Texas at …

The Law Of Collegiality: Revisiting Niagara University V. Nlrb, Rev. Carl L. Pieber

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Hate Speech In The Schools: A Potential Change In Direction, Kevin W. Saunders

Maine Law Review

The law regarding free expression and students in the public schools has long been somewhat confused. An early Supreme Court vindication of student speech rights has eroded over the years. Yet, it is perhaps unclear how great the erosion has been and how much of the original recognition still stands. This has left the lower courts rather unwilling to protect school students from hate speech, at least in cases where there has not been a history of such speech leading to disruption or even violence. Only recently has there been some sign of change in that regard, with a few …

Litigation In Search Of Educational Opportunity: An Analysis Of Abbeville County School District Et Al. V. The State Of South Carolina Et Al., Jennifer Michelle Hein

Dissertations

Like many southern states, South Carolina has a history permeated by issues related to race, equity, and educational opportunity. As early as the 1949 South Carolina court case, Briggs v. Elliott, South Carolina has had to address issues of equity and educational opportunity among its disenfranchised and marginalized citizenry. More than 60 years later, in Abbeville County School District et al. v. the State of South Carolina et al., sectors of rural South Carolina, predominantly black and poverty laden, would unite and engage in a legal battle with the State over equity in public education and by judicial mandate, be …

Did The Fry Decision Under The Idea Overturn Rowley Endrew F. And Fry Symposium, Ruth Colker

The Journal of Law and Education

No abstract provided.

"To Hell In A Handbasket": Teachers, Free Speech, And Matters Of Public Concern In The Social Media World, Jessica O. Laurin

Indiana Law Journal

This Note argues that courts should narrow the scope of examined speech and place little weight on the amount of media attention that the speech received. Although courts sometimes reject First Amendment protection on the Pickering balancing test instead of the public concern issue, the public concern requirement is a threshold issue that plays a critical role in successful First Amendment claims. Accordingly, courts need to revisit the public concern doctrine to ensure that its analysis is sound and yields the correct outcome.

Part I provides background concerning retaliation claims, criticism of the public concern requirement, and special issues that …

Abandoning The Federal Role In Education, Derek Black

Faculty Publications

In December 2015, Congress passed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which redefined the role of the federal government in education. The ESSA attempted to appease popular sentiment against the No Child Left Behind Act’s (NCLB) overreliance on standardized testing and punitive sanctions. But in overturning those aspects of the NCLB, Congress failed to devise a system that was any better. Congress simply stripped the federal government of regulatory power and vastly expanded state discretion. For the first time in fifty years, the federal government lacks the ability to prompt improvements in student achievement and to demand equal resources for …

Increasing Diversity By A New Master's Degree In Legal Principles, Joni Hersch

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Students who leave their JD program before graduation leave empty handed, without an additional degree or other credential indicating that their law school studies had any professional, educational, or marketable value. The absence of such a credential combines with the substantial risks and costs associated with law school education to discourage risk averse students from applying. The adverse impacts of these risks may be especially great for lower income students who have fewer financial resources to draw on and less information about their fit with legal education and the legal profession. I propose that law schools award a master’s degree …

Saving Title Ix: Designing More Equitable And Efficient Investigation Procedures, Emma Ellman-Golan

Michigan Law Review

In 2011, the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) issued guidance on Title IX compliance. This guidance has resulted in the creation of investigative and adjudicatory tribunals at colleges and universities receiving federal funds to hear claims of sexual assault, harassment, and violence. OCR’s enforcement efforts are a laudable response to an epidemic of sexual violence on college campuses, but they have faced criticism from administrators, law professors, and potential members of the Trump Administration. This Note suggests ways to alter current Title IX enforcement mechanisms to placate critics and to maintain OCR enforcement as a bulwark against …

Equal Liberty In Proportion, Joshua E. Weishart

William & Mary Law Review

As federal law continues to devolve more education policy making to states, state courts will remain a primary forum for settling education rights. State fora do not inspire confidence, however, because their doctrine is so uncertain. A majority of state supreme courts do not specify a level of scrutiny and at times seem to be improvising judicial review. The resulting decisions can exhibit a troubling lack of foresight. Most notably, while federal doctrine increasingly reveals the interrelation of liberty and equality claims, state courts have failed to capitalize on that point—even though their decisions were among the first to concede …

The Search For Third Options In A Two-Bathroom Society, Sharon R. Cruz

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

The note examines the systemic discrimination faced by transgender individuals, particularly in access to bathrooms and prison housing, arguing that such treatment reflects broader societal and legal failures to recognize and protect gender identity. It critiques binary policies that perpetuate harm and advocates for inclusive measures to ensure equal rights and safety. The analysis underscores the legal system's evolving understanding of gender identity and the urgent need for enforceable protections.

Spare The Rod, Save A Child: Why The Supreme Court Should Revisit Ingraham V. Wright And Protect The Substantive Due Process Rights Of Students Subjected To Corporal Punishment, Lekha Menon

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Influence Of Parenting Model Toward Juvenile Delinquency And Its Prevention In West Sumatera, Efren Nova

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

This research was conducted with legal research methods that can be revealed how the law was perceived and implemented by the community through research Juridical Sociological including reviewing legal issue s as an integral part of the community or research approach which emphasizes the legal aspects with regard to the subject to be discussed, is associated with the fact in the field. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent of the influence and the role of parents in caring and educating children through parenting models that cause juvenile delinquency, as well as the effortsthe parents' role in …