The central argument of this article is that post-colonial states operate--and have always operated, due to their roots in colonialism and capitalism--according to an "ethos of privatization," through which state agents derive private benefit from positions ostensibly responsible for providing public services. The article offers a…

Public debates around whether and how teachers should discuss topics related to race and gender in the classroom have turned classrooms into political battlegrounds. Between April 2021 and January 2023, 18 states passed policies restricting teachers' instruction. Many of these state policies restrict teachers' instruction on topics related to race…

The article argues that there is no single globalisation of education systems, but rather multiple globalisations of each system taken in its individual context. We propose three explanatory factors to account for these vernacular globalisation processes, that is, for individual policy trajectories in each national context: path dependence on…

This article maps the genealogies of how California and Texas have dealt with school policy. The twin purpose is to shed light onto the dynamics governing the formation of K-12 education policy in two influential and different states, and visualizing the intensification of state-federal interaction that has gradually evolved into a national school…

After the Civil War (1861-1865), the United States faced a problem of "reconstruction" similar to that confronted by other nations at the time and familiar to the US since at least the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). The problem was one of territorial and political (re)integration: how to take territories that had only recently been…

All states value their distinct approaches to policy and to life and the U.S. Constitution embeds the idea of state rights and responsibilities as a core principle in the federal system. California arguably takes this further than most. This paper provides a new way to think about how national policies might complicate or augment the next state…

This report provides the historical background and interpretive analysis needed to understand controversies surrounding Common Core and its associated tests. In this report, Williamson M. Evers presents a revised and expanded version of his expert report for "Jindal v. United States Department of Education et al.," No. 14-CV- 534 (M.D.…

Large numbers of schools across the country are low performing and have been for years. This longstanding and widespread problem painfully reveals that individual schools are not the only ones responsible for their performance. The public school system as a whole is unable, and sometimes unwilling, to address the root causes of dysfunction.…

Against a shifting set of assessment preferences in the US regarding whether educational assessment should continue to be a states rights game or become a federally dominated undertaking, the publication of five first-rate analyses about England's national curriculum assessment (NCA) is particularly propitious. Taken together, these five papers…

Investigates the contention that the Commonwealth Grants Commission, through the methods and procedures it employed to determine the special grants it recommended for payment to Western Australia, was influential in education policy formation. This resulted in considerable loss of control by the State government. (Author/WM)

Drawing from a review of the literature, this paper addresses a series of questions related to the issue of whether state agencies, such as state boards of regents, commissions of higher education, or boards of education, should have the sole legal and official power to determine which postsecondary educational institutions can operate legally…

Does the Constitution protect parents' right to pass their values along to their children? Author argues that it does, basing his contention on the language and the history of Pierce v. Society of Sisters, the landmark decision that guaranteed private schools' right to do business. (Editor/RK)

The legal debate over religious freedom in public schools involves the aspects of control of education, definition of religion, and religious expression. Cites conflicting judicial decisions and states the issues the Supreme Court must resolve. (MLF)

Chapter 3

The recent growth of school-related laws and regulations has magnified the court role in setting education policies through legal decision. State courts have traditionally played a primary role in disposing of education disputes, but their role has diminished while the federal court role has increased. This is due to a lag between state and…