The "pig in the parlor" refers to a growing area of censorship. In this paper, "parlor" stands for public schools, and "pig" for speech that need not be protected if it occurs at an inappropriate time or place, i.e., if such speech is not considered to bear the "imprimatur" of the schools. A review of the…

This paper explores the legal ramifications associated with teaching moral and spiritual values in the public schools. Following a history of the problem, the paper discusses four schemes currently used for teaching these values to the young: (1) withdrawing children from public schools to either enroll them in private or parochial schools, or…

This book is a collection of 19 addresses made at the 1978 annual convention of the National Organization on Legal Problems of Education (NOLPE). Some of the topics covered include: suits against school officials, Title IX, competency testing, teaching moral and spiritual values in public schools, the Bakke decision, unintended impacts of Supreme…

This exploratory essay suggests the contours of a social history of law and public education. The essay departs from two traditional approaches to educational law: the study of landmark cases, and textbooks that delimit legally approved practice. Instead the changing dialectic between statutory and court-decided law is analyzed, stressing how…

The educational beliefs of Supreme Court Justices in the 1980s are examined, i.e., the explicitly stated beliefs, rather than any inferred beliefs based on legal decisions. In particular, the focus is on beliefs expressed only in the major Court opinions rendered in the 1980s. Issues discussed include the definition of education, its relation to…

Supreme Court decisions made during the previous and present terms as well as some that will be rendered next term are discussed. Among the cases, the following are of particular relevance to school board members. In "Memphis Community Schools v. Stachura" the Court declared that damages based on the "value" of constitutional…

This report stems from the misunderstanding of what general standardized tests and standardized admission tests can and were designed to do, and an uneasiness with certain discoveries concerning biases in the tests. Important issues such as margin of error, predictive value, social and racial bias, and the effects of coaching are the very issues…