Public funding of private K-12 schooling through vouchers continues to be a contentious issue across the U.S., even though a solid majority of Americans continues to oppose them. The voucher plans run the risk of legal challenge for how they handle the rights of students with disabilities and whether they violate state constitutional provisions…

In Physics "critical mass" refers to the minimum amount of fissionable material required to sustain a chain reaction. The adoption of state education policy isn't often equated with this concept, but occasionally solutions and ideas seem to gather around a common problem. If the solution at hand is simple, easily understood, and…

According to the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, a teacher sentenced to probation as a first offender for residing in an apartment where marijuana was grown and used was improperly dismissed from her teaching position despite a state law protecting first offenders, but remained subject to dismissal for misconduct. (PGD)

The Texas Supreme Court ruled that students' rights to participate in extracurricular activities were not on the same level as rights to free speech and found that the state law barring failing students from extracurricular activities was rationally related to a legitimate state interest in educational quality. (PGD)

Examines state laws and the actions of various courts on home instruction and unauthorized educational programs. Suggests reforming the regulation of private education through legislative action that requires periodic testing as an alternative to compulsory school attendance. (Author/MLF)

Explains numerous reasons for ever-increasing school costs, including court decisions involving busing, private school aid, education of illegal aliens' children, bilingual and second-language programs, and use of school facilities. Federal and state legislation and regulations and societal demands (for afterschool care and security systems) have…

Discusses Nebraska case involving efforts by parents to seek redress in federal court for their emotionally impaired daughter's difficulties with her band teacher; the parents claimed violation of the 14th Amendment, federal disabilities statutes, and state common law. Explains why the federal district court and Eighth Circuit rejected the…

Reviews Ridgewood, New Jersey, case wherein several parents claimed that school district's student survey violated students' privacy rights protected by the Constitution and two federal statutes: The Family Rights and Privacy Act and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment. Discusses subsequent federal regulatory and state legislative action.…

The recent flap over the Kansas State Board of Education's decision to drop knowledge of evolution theory from its science standards has rekindled the perennial science/religion debate in education. This article examines mutual relationships of three knowledge structures (science, mainstream religion, and fringe beliefs) and the middle-ground's…

The central federal question surrounding vouchers is whether participation of sectarian schools violates the First Amendment's Establishment clause. The U.S. Supreme Court, through its interpretation of the federal Constitution, may have the final word in determining voucher proposals' future. Litigation in Cleveland, Milwaukee, Vermont, and Maine…

Discusses basis for Kentucky appellate court decision that state's no-pass, no-drive statute did not violate due-process and equal-protection clauses of the Kentucky and federal constitutions, but did violate the federal Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, but nevertheless did not invalidate the statute. Explains why the decision is…

In September 2002, the children of parents Latasha Gibbs, Carmella Glass, Laverne Jones, Charlene Mingo, Deborah Powell-Jasper, Eunice Staton, and Keikola Valentine were attending New York City public schools that the state education department identified as needing improvement -- in other words, failing -- under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB)…

Analyzes complex Minnesota case wherein the state intermediate, appellate court upheld (2-1) juvenile court's order that a high school student expelled for making a bomb threat pay the district's tutoring costs and attorney's fees. (PKP)