Explores the opinions of Justice Rehnquist in issues concerning religion and public education; observes that the Supreme Court appears just one vote away from shifting church/state issues to the local level; and urges those concerned with constitutional values and public education to reexamine the Bill of Rights. (MLF)

Describes judicial attitudes toward the needs of linguistic minorities in the 1960s and 1970s and the shift during the last decade from mandating national standards to emphasizing local community discretion. Explores the implications for the national-value/community-value distinction for bilingual education and for current controversies concerning…

Business partnership with public schools, while holding great promise for educational improvement, is hindered by legal questions about equity. Disagreement on how to apply this value to education has produced much litigation over school finance. Some allege that property tax financing violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth…

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…

The authors contend that a solution to the problems raised by the "Serrano" decision is impossible without an understanding of the basic facts of public education in California. Size, cost, discrepancies, and ranking in relationship to other states and the nation are advanced to place California's public school system in clearer focus.…

Discusses the issue of gender equity in the schools from the perspective of a national values/community values distinction. An overview of the major U.S. Supreme Court decisions on sex discrimination issues is presented followed by a detailed analysis of the implementation of legal mandates regarding sex equity in program access, athletics, and…

Focusing on what policymakers cannot do, rather than on what they should do, this booklet explores the constitutional parameters of the teaching of moral values. Section 1 provides a description of the general rules for legal analysis followed by the courts when dealing with freedom of speech or religion. In the following two sections, these rules…

All three branches of American government--legislative, executive, and judicial--play a significant role in shaping the enterprise of American public education. This book, an update of the 1980 second edition, describes and analyzes changes in education and the dynamic impact of the law on education's authority. The book can serve as an advanced…

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…

Demonstrates how the legal, educational, and technical determination of adequacy is a process of social construction. Identifies the social values of accountability, responsibility, and community as underpinning the societal consensus building around the concept of a "minimally adequate education." At present, educational reform does not…

Recent court decisions concerning school board actions regarding the use of instructional materials indicate substantial deference to the judgment of the school administrators and board members. As long as boards act for a valid educational purpose, they have increasing freedom to decide the inculcation of values is more important than…

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…

Focuses First Amendment claims within the public schools: (1) claims of students to free expression; (2) right of students to receive information; (3) right of teachers to use materials and teaching methods of choice; and (4) right of parents to have their children exempted from assertedly objectionable materials. (MLF)

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…

A recent United States Supreme Court Case, County of Washington v. Gunther, examined issues related to sex-based wage discrimination, as defined by federal statutes. The positions of the respondent and petitioner and majority and minority views of the court are presented. (PP)