Although few would question the public school's legitimate role in transmitting societal values, controversy surrounds what those values should be and who should make such decisions. School boards should have policies in place to handle curriculum challenges and to establish review committees with broad representation for the selection of…

Representative, delegated school governance by elected officials intrinsically vests curricular control in those officials. Because their offices are created so that the schools may be governed, they have authority to govern the schools--even especially--in the delicate and critical areas of deciding how and what the schools shall teach.…

Children should have the same First Amendment rights as adults except when it can be empirically shown that the children in question differ from minimally normal adults in relevant intellectual competencies and would, as a result, be likely to suffer harm if accorded full First Amendment liberties. In this paper, specific principles derived from…

School board censorship of library books and of curriculum materials and methodology can infringe on fundamental constitutional rights, according to this seventh chapter in a book on school law. In the last decade, cases in federal courts have tended to support the authority of school boards to control library materials. However, board authority…

Attempts at censorship of books and periodicals used or made available in public schools have been increasing in recent years. Parents are raising a higher proportion of the complaints than ever before, and the percentage of complaints that are successful in having books removed from shelves is also on the rise. Three of seven federal court…

While in office, the 1976 chairman of the Committee against Censorship of the National Council of Teachers of English received reports of complaints about classroom and library materials; debated with textbook protestors; and participated in over 100 radio shows, at least half of which were call-in shows involving exchange of views with schoolbook…

Controversies about the choice of books in school libraries raise two perplexing questions: (1) To what extent does the First Amendment allow the government to control what students read in schools? (2) If educational materials are to be selected, who makes these decisions? Several relevant court cases are reviewed. (Author/IS)