This report argues that the Michigan state constitution's "Blaine Amendment," a provision which prevents parents from drawing on state funding to go outside the public school system, is superseded by the United States Supreme Court's 2020 ruling in the case Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue. The report discusses a legislative…

Presently, charter schools exist in 43 states. The Minnesota Legislature first created charter schools in the United States in 1991. As of 2018, there were nearly 7,000 charter schools in 43 states serving over approximately 3 million students. The creation, control, and mission of these schools varies from state to state. This analysis examines…

The 2016 presidential election campaign and its aftermath have underscored worrisome trends in the present state of our democracy: the extreme polarization of the electorate, the dismissal of people with opposing views, and the widespread acceptance and circulation of one-sided and factually erroneous information. Only a small proportion of those…

This policy memo examines some fundamental shifts, along with their real-world implications, within the past 60 years of Supreme Court jurisprudence, up to and including the current "Carson v. Makin" case. The Supreme Court is just a few small steps away from transforming every charter school law in the U.S. into a private-school voucher…

This dissertation explored the constitutionality of a Georgia law, under both the Georgia Constitution and the United States Constitution, which allows for the removal of elected school board members based on threatened loss of district accreditation. The problem is that elected board members are being removed from office based on district…

This study examined federal and state court decisions related to student Fourth Amendment rights following the "New Jersey v. T.L.O." ruling in 1985. There has been minimal research in judicial treatment of students' Fourth Amendment rights across regions of the country and less to what extent regional rulings implicitly or explicitly…

Allowing public funds to be used for tuition and other expenses in private schools through a voucher system has been the source of debate in legislative and educational forums for almost half a century, but only recently have school vouchers become a serious school reform strategy. This article provides a brief overview of the voucher plans…

The first section of this article examines the historical record of Ohio's Second Constitutional Convention in an effort to discern what the delegates meant by "thorough and efficient" system of education. Included in this analysis are other historical documents that give further indication of the intent of the delegates. A brief review…

Florida's voucher program for students in the lowest-rated public schools is unconstitutional, the state supreme court ruled early January 2006 in a 5-2 decision that friends and foes of private school choice are scrutinizing for its potential impact on voucher debates nationwide. Chief Justice Barbara J. Pariente of the Florida Supreme Court…

A libel suit for which the ruling hung on determination of the plaintiffs as public or private figures is described in this paper. First, the paper describes the case, in which an Oregon newspaper reported that an antique dealer and the local bank president had systematically swindled a citizen out of several hundred thousand dollars, and for…

Church-state issues in education have a long history in America. Although the U.S. Supreme Court has made several landmark decisions with regard to the separation of church and state in schools, strong conservative influences in Southern states, including Louisiana, have resulted in state statutes and individual school-district policies and…

Traces the history of "The Pledge of Allegiance" litigation and discusses the probability the Supreme Court will agree to resolve the difference in judicial opinion over the constitutionality of including the words "under God" in the pledge. (Contains 32 references.) (MLF)

This article examines Broadley v. Board of Education of the City of Meriden, wherein the Supreme Court of Connecticut held that the state constitutional right to free public education does not grant gifted children special education rights. Implications are discussed and recommendations are offered for informing stakeholders of legal threats to…

The Praeger Handbook of American High Schools contains entries that explore the topic of secondary schools in the United States. Entries are arranged alphabetically and cover topics as varied as assessment to the history of the American high school, from attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder to gay and straight student alliances, from the No…

Considers rulings by more than 15 state supreme courts in which state legislation permitting public sector bargaining and arbitration was found to be constitutional. Denounces judicial approval of this legislation, arguing that the laws oppose Lockian traditions of constitutional representative government and are a threat to democracy. (PGD)