Law Review Digests-Primary and Secondary Education

Journal of Law and Education, Oct 2004

Law Review Digests-

ARTICLES, NOTES AND COMMENTARY

Primary and secondary Education

Articles

Paula Abrams, The Little Red Schoolhouse: Pierce, State Monopoly of Education and the Politics of Intolerance, 20 Const. Commentary 61 (2003). In Pierce v. Society of Sisters, the Supreme Court struck down an Oregon law requiring all children to attend public schools. The decision's primary concern is whether the state monopoly of education is permissible in a democracy. The Supreme Court found the Oregon law unconstitutional concluding that the state's monopoly of education is inconsistent with parental rights. However, this parental right is not well defined and cases do not articulate its boundaries.

Klint Alexander, The Road to Vouchers: The Supreme Court's Compliance and the Crumbling of the Wall of Separation Between Church and State in American Education, 92 Ky. L.J. 439 (2003). Recognizing that America has a vastly diverse religious society, the Supreme Court has relied upon the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment to protect against religious strife. This article discusses the separation of church and state as it applies to school vouchers. Many state legislatures with large numbers of students in private schools are challenging this wall of separation. There appears to be a trend by the current presidential administration to redirect public aid from public education toward private and religious education.

Lynn M. Daggett, Special Education Attorney's Fees: Of Buckhannon, the IDEA Reauthorization Bills, and the IDEA as Civil Rights Statute, 8 U. CaI. Davis J. Juv. L. & Policy 1, (2004). In the 1980's, Congress amended the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to provide that parents that prevailed in IDEA lawsuits against schools could recover their reasonable attorney fees and related costs, like successful parties can under other civil rights statutes. The two main issues concerning attorney fees is what the definition of prevailing party should be and whether there should be a cap on the amount of fees that are recoverable. The author suggests that these issues will depend largely upon whether the IDEA is treated like a civil rights statute. The author concluded that the future of the IDEA attorney fee provision is unclear due to the uncertainty over how these issues will be addressed.

Suzanne E. Eckes, How Will the Grutier and Gratz Affirmative Action Decisions Impact K-J2 Diversity Plans?, 29 Thurgood Marshall L. Rev. 1 (2004). This article considers whether recent Supreme Court decisions allowing race-conscious admissions programs in institutions of higher learning also apply to admissions decisions at the K-12 level. The author closely examines the Supreme Court decisions in Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger as well as some historic cases involving affirmative action in K-12 schools and concludes that diversity is a compelling interest in the K-12 context just as it is in the context of a university, and therefore race-conscious admissions programs should be allowed.

James K. Gooch, Fenced in: Why Sheff v. O'Neil Can't Save Connecticut's Inner City Students, 22 QLR 395 (2004). In Sheff v. O'Neill, the Connecticut Supreme Court found that racial isolation of students in the Hartford school district was a violation of the students' right to a substantially equal educational opportunity. The state legislature made a failed attempt to remedy this problem by creating an initiative to encourage suburban school districts to interact with inner-city school districts. The author argues that a state court should order that school district lines be redrawn based on county boundaries, rather than city boundaries, as a means of forcing suburban areas to help deal with the educational inequities in inner-city schools.

F. Arthur Jones II, A Creative Solution?: Assessing the Constitutionality of a New Creation/Evolution Disclaimer, 49 Loy. L. Rev. 519 (2003). The Louisiana Board of Elementary and secondary Education proposed a disclaimer to be placed in high school biology textbooks concerning evolution and alternative theories. The disclaimer was not adopted in the state for political reasons. However, the author concluded that mandatory textbook disclaimers are constitutional under the First Amendment.

Tiana Murillo, Patricia Loera, and Alejandra Rincon, Conference: National Council of La Raza 2002 Annual Conference. 9 Tex. Hispanic J.L. & Policy 7 (2003). This article contains comments made by panelists at the National Council of La Raza 2002 Annual Conference. The panelists shared many acts of discrimination towards undocumented immigrant students by schools. The panelists saw monitoring legislative developments affecting immigrants as a possible solution to the problem of educating immigrant students. The panelists were also concerned that there was lack of federal funding for bilingual education programs. The author argues that the best way to increase federal funding to state schools would be to include limited-proficiency English speaking students along with non-English students in counts for federal funding.