Educational Policy Making and the Courts
Winter term
M,T,W,Th,F 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Visiting Professor Michael A. Rebell
3 classroom credits LAW-35245A Winter
2, 3, or 4 optional clinical credits LAW-35245C Fall or Spring
From the beginning of the American experience, law has created, shaped and defined the purposes of our system of public education. Schools have been the prime vehicles for inculcating society's values, as well as the main mechanisms for reforming those values. These complex policy issues have often been played out and resolved in the courts. This course will analyze the role of the courts in educational policymaking and the impact of legal interventions on the educational process. Subject areas covered will include political socialization, student free speech, religion and the schools, school desegregation, rights of the disabled, education finance reform and privatization and vouchers. We will also consider the extent to which the federal No Child Left Behind Act is promoting or impeding meaningful educational opportunities for all students.
Since Brown v. Board of Education, courts have been called upon to oversee far-reaching institutional reforms, involving school desegregation and a host of other issues, that bear little relationship to traditional judicial remedies. The course will also examine the legal and political justifications for this "judicial activism," as well as to the courts' capacity to undertake these functions. Particular attention in this regard will be given to school desegregation cases in the federal courts and fiscal equity/ education adequacy litigations in the state courts.
Clinical work will take place at the Special Education clinic / Trauma and Policy Learning Initiative of the WilmerHale Legal Services Center during the fall or spring semester. Clinical students must enroll in a 1 credit clinical workshop in addition to the course and clinical (Fall: W 5-7pm; Spring: W 5-7pm). Students who would like to do the optional clinical component must enroll in the clinical section (Fall clinical: LAW-35245C-1/F; Spring clinical: LAW-35245C-1/S). Enrolling in the clinical section will automatically enroll students in the course, clinical, and workshop. Refer to the Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs website for drop/add deadlines and other clinical registration information.