This course will consider current legal problems in public and private education systems. Both elementary/secondary education and higher education will be addressed, but primary emphasis will be on public elementary/secondary education. Topics to be discussed include the roles and authority of state and local education agencies, compulsory education, home schooling, curriculum control, academic freedom, students’ and teachers’ rights, desegregation and affirmative action, allocation of educational resources, federal aid programs, and problems of church and state. The prerogatives of parents, the roles of such private groups as teachers unions and accrediting associations, the functions of courts and lawyers in resolving education law problems, and the usefulness of education policy materials in elucidating education problems will be considered. Occasionally this course is also offered as a limited enrollment seminar that fulfills one-half of the upper-class writing requirement.

Upper-level course for:
V. Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
XXII. Law and Public Policy