Noting the nation's renewed attention to remedying school segregation, "Segregation, Race, and Charter Schools" presents evidence about the extent of school segregation and its relationship with improving student achievement for students of color. The report argues that school segregation has remained flat for decades and also argues…

Tim Keller's article insightfully explores the flawed legal reasoning behind and potentially pernicious consequences of the Arizona Supreme Court's 2009 "Cain vs. Horne" ruling. He carefully examines the two fundamental flaws in the court's interpretative methodology: a failure to engage in a straightforward textual analysis of Arizona's…

This commentary addresses the Arizona Supreme Court's legal reasoning in "Cain v. Horne," which struck down two voucher programs for special needs children pursuant to one of Arizona's Blaine Amendments and explains that the court both failed to apply a straightforward textual analysis and ignored the analytical framework its prior…

This commentary is in response to Tim Keller's article "The National Implications of 'Cain v. Horne.'" In his analysis, Keller asserts that the Arizona Supreme Court wrongfully struck down a voucher program for students with special needs by characterizing the voucher as aid to schools rather than aid to students. In this response to…

This past June, a 5-4 majority of the U.S. Supreme Court declared integration plans in Louisville and Seattle unconstitutional because of their focus on race as one factor in assigning students to schools. The Court's ruling in the "Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1" and "Meredith v. Jefferson…

There continues to be a significant debate as to the most effective means of providing North Carolina's children with the best possible education. The one point upon which a great majority agree is that, despite substantial increases in funding, public education is not meeting the needs of a large proportion of the state's students. This paper…

Discusses the factors influencing the recent increase in school segregation based on findings of recent study by The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University. Resegregation factors include changes in residential patterns, public-school choice, and Supreme Court decisions such as "Freeman v Pitts" (1992) and "Missouri v…

The Supreme Court opinion of June 2002 in "Zelman et al. versus Simmons-Harris et al." is reviewed in this paper. In the first section, an interpretation of the ruling is offered in terms of four evaluative criteria: freedom of choice, productive efficiency, equity, and social cohesion. Unsurprisingly, the opinion strongly emphasized…

Explores the legal implications of a voucher program for private school autonomy and then describes how autonomy and accountability issues surfaced in litigation involving the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, program. An appendix details the Notice of School's Intent to Participate requirements of the relevant Wisconsin statute. (88 footnotes) (MLF)

The May 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision came in the midst of a national preoccupation with taking care of very young baby boomers. There was a focus on the cheapest way to staff classrooms; build schools; get textbooks and other resources to students and teachers. The desegregation of schools proceeded with about the same level of…

Among types of school choice plans, most important distinction is between plans within preexisting public schools and plans that provide opportunities for students to move, at government expense, into otherwise private schools. Discusses five developments that have moved different but overlapping constituencies behind school choice. Discusses role…

Reviews recent federal court findings in three legal areas: the responsibility of public schools to reimburse tuition costs for special education students placed in appropriate private programs, parents' rights to sue for damages when special education placement is inadequate, and students' freedom to incorporate sexual innuendo into speeches.…

In 1998, the Wisconsin State Supreme Court reversed the decision of the appellate court and ruled that the amended Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) did not violate the Establishment Clause or the Wisconsin Constitution. Examines the constitutionality of vouchers for both secular and sectarian private schools, as well as the policy…

Addresses the constitutionality of tuition-voucher programs that provide access to private, parochial schools. Surveys Establishment Clause jurisprudence of the United States Supreme Court. Examines the Cleveland, Ohio, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, tuition-voucher programs, currently being litigated in the respective state courts, in an attempt to…

Proponents of school choice are looking for ways to make school choice that includes private and religious schools legally sound. This paper describes how a carefully designed plan for universal school choice would be consistent with key rulings of the United States Supreme Court and the Minnesota Supreme Court. The paper first describes the 1971…