Under Federal law, State and local educational agencies (hereinafter "districts") are required to provide all children with equal access to public education at the elementary and secondary level. Thie Dear Colleague letter was written to remind school districts of the Federal obligation to provide equal educational opportunities to all…

A federal district court has ruled that Brown University (RI) discriminates against its women's athletics programs, in violation of federal law. The university's stance on the law, which questions government interpretation, has been controversial. The suit was brought by nine female athletes seeking reinstatement of gymnastics and volleyball…

Recent court decisions have declared that those public school financing systems dependent substantially on local ad valorem (property) taxes violate the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. The violation stems from the fact that local school district spending and educational quality are dependent on the values of real property in the…

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Educational Opportunities Act (EEOA) of 1974 impose an affirmative obligation on the states to rectify the language deficiencies of non-English-speaking students but do not specify a particular remedy, leaving it to State and local educational authorities to determine which programs, methods,…

Until recently the federal courts (Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka) and Congressional action (Civil Rights Act of 1964, Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972) have spurred efforts to bring race and sex equity to the schools. (LC)

The restrictions of State constitutional provisions on the use of public funds for parochial schools and the interplay between State constitutional provisions and the First Amendment dominated issues of school finance. Other prominent issues included the extent to which public funds can support auxiliary services and the effect of State…

Nineteen seventy-six was a relatively quiet year in the Supreme Court with respect to litigation involving students. Only two opinions were reported: Private schools were told that they could not exclude blacks for purely racial reasons because blacks have the right to enter into contracts with private schools and the schools cannot refuse to do…

One Supreme Court decision, seven federal appellate decisions, and two district court decisions were published in the area of school finance in 1990. The Supreme Court reviewed a case concerning allegations of school district segregation, along with an ensuing tax assessment issue. Federal appellate courts handed down decisions involving alleged…

In 1988, there were two United States Supreme Court decisions regarding school finance. One decision upheld the constitutionality of a North Dakota statute regarding transportation fees, and the other decision ruled that interest from state and local government bearer bonds was subject to federal income taxation. Cases discussed in this chapter…

This monograph examines recent legal developments in education and their impact on federal policy as well as ways in which the legislative and executive branches can facilitate rather than impede state compliance with court mandates. While organizing the discussion under the broad headings of "Equal Educational Opportunity,""Protection of…