Historically, private education has been an option mostly for families who could afford the cost or received financial help. Years of research have shown that many families would choose private schools and other educational resources for their children if they did not face insurmountable financial or geographical limitations. Private educational…

College students who reside in campus dormitories at public universities have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their dorm rooms that is protected by the fourth amendment; and officials cannot search these rooms for law enforcement purposes without a valid warrant. Non-students, however, have no such reasonable expectation of privacy in…

Students get a valuable opportunity to debate the significance and purpose of Miranda rights by examining the Supreme Court case that led to the warning that police routinely issue.

Though school choice has proven to be popular, barriers remain in some states as a result of so-called Blaine Amendments and similar policies to prevent education funding from following students to religious schools as a part of school choice options. If left to stand, these ignoble 19th century amendments will remain major impediments to the…

After "Zelman v. Simmons-Harris" (2002), civil conflict over use of vouchers and taxes to purchase private education, especially in religious schools, largely remained an issue for state courts' jurisprudence. However, in 2010, it returned to the U.S. Supreme Court when Arizona taxpayers challenged the constitutionality of the state's…

The author reports on the ruling of a divided appellate court that held that the state law unconstitutionally made it harder for minorities to seek preferences than for other groups. The court struck down a voter-passed ban on the use of race-conscious admissions by Michigan's public colleges, holding that the measure had unconstitutionally put…

In the midst of an attempt by Arizona's legislature and top education official to shut down ethnic-studies courses in the Tucson Unified School District, students at Tucson High Magnet School are flocking to the courses this school year. School district officials say enrollment in Mexican-American studies in Tucson Unified's 14 high schools has…

Arizona's variation on government vouchers for religious schools and California's prohibition on the sale of violent video games to minors present the top two cases with implications for education in the U.S. Supreme Court term that formally begins Oct. 4. New Justice Elena Kagan brings to the court extensive education policy experience as a…

Maintaining a safe, orderly learning environment is a significant challenge for education leaders, especially when students insist on bringing alcohol, weapons, and drugs into schools. To compound that challenge, educators who wish to uncover contraband must do so within the confines of the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable…