Failing Law Schools

Failing Law Schools PDF

Author: Brian Z. Tamanaha

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2012-06-15

Total Pages: 253

ISBN-13: 0226923614

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On the surface, law schools today are thriving. Enrollments are on the rise, and their resources are often the envy of every other university department. Law professors are among the highest paid and play key roles as public intellectuals, advisers, and government officials. Yet behind the flourishing facade, law schools are failing abjectly. Recent front-page stories have detailed widespread dubious practices, including false reporting of LSAT and GPA scores, misleading placement reports, and the fundamental failure to prepare graduates to enter the profession. Addressing all these problems and more in a ringing critique is renowned legal scholar Brian Z. Tamanaha. Piece by piece, Tamanaha lays out the how and why of the crisis and the likely consequences if the current trend continues. The out-of-pocket cost of obtaining a law degree at many schools now approaches $200,000. The average law school graduate’s debt is around $100,000—the highest it has ever been—while the legal job market is the worst in decades, with the scarce jobs offering starting salaries well below what is needed to handle such a debt load. At the heart of the problem, Tamanaha argues, are the economic demands and competitive pressures on law schools—driven by competition over U.S. News and World Report ranking. When paired with a lack of regulatory oversight, the work environment of professors, the limited information available to prospective students, and loan-based tuition financing, the result is a system that is fundamentally unsustainable. Growing concern with the crisis in legal education has led to high-profile coverage in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, and many observers expect it soon will be the focus of congressional scrutiny. Bringing to the table his years of experience from within the legal academy, Tamanaha has provided the perfect resource for assessing what’s wrong with law schools and figuring out how to fix them.

LAW OF SCHOOLS, STUDENTS AND TEACHERS IN A NUTSHELL

LAW OF SCHOOLS, STUDENTS AND TEACHERS IN A NUTSHELL PDF

Author: KERN. ALEXANDER

Publisher:

Published: 2022

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9781685612580

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"This text captures the key points of the precedents governing student rights and responsibilities relating to attendance, speech, expression, religion, discipline, grades, tests, drugs, search and seizure, the emerging law of social media, i.e., cyberbullying, and the range of procedural due process interests. The book further addresses the range of constitutional rights and protections for teachers as well as employment terms and conditions, including contracts, tenure and potential liabilities." -- Provided by publisher.

Fixing Law Schools

Fixing Law Schools PDF

Author: Benjamin H. Barton

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2019-12-17

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 1479866555

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An urgent plea for much needed reforms to legal education The period from 2008 to 2018 was a lost decade for American law schools. Employment results were terrible. Applications and enrollment cratered. Revenue dropped precipitously and several law schools closed. Almost all law schools shrank in terms of students, faculty, and staff. A handful of schools even closed. Despite these dismal results, law school tuition outran inflation and student indebtedness exploded, creating a truly toxic brew of higher costs for worse results. The election of Donald Trump in 2016 and the subsequent role of hero-lawyers in the “resistance” has made law school relevant again and applications have increased. However, despite the strong early returns, we still have no idea whether law schools are out of the woods or not. If the Trump Bump is temporary or does not result in steady enrollment increases, more schools will close. But if it does last, we face another danger. We tend to hope that crises bring about a process of creative destruction, where a downturn causes some businesses to fail and other businesses to adapt. And some of the reforms needed at law schools are obvious: tuition fees need to come down, teaching practices need to change, there should be greater regulations on law schools that fail to deliver on employment and bar passage. Ironically, the opposite has happened for law schools: they suffered a harrowing, near-death experience and the survivors look like they’re going to exhale gratefully and then go back to doing exactly what led them into the crisis in the first place. The urgency of this book is to convince law school stakeholders (faculty, students, applicants, graduates, and regulators) not to just return to business as usual if the Trump Bump proves to be permanent. We have come too far, through too much, to just shrug our shoulders and move on.

The Palgrave Handbook of Education Law for Schools

The Palgrave Handbook of Education Law for Schools PDF

Author: Karen Trimmer

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-06-30

Total Pages: 680

ISBN-13: 3319777513

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This Handbook examines the essential nature of the law within an educational context and asks why there is not greater preparation for this aspect of a teacher’s role. Principals and teachers across the world now work in increasingly uncertain and challenging environments involving complex legislative frameworks, with their roles and responsibilities constantly changing to meet these demands: thus, it is imperative that educators adapt and acquire new skills relating to child protection and criminal law. On a daily basis, teachers and practitioners are being challenged to critically examine and evaluate the legal rights and obligations of various stakeholders, including students, parents, educators and administrators. However, if these skills are not developed, the implications will be significant: particularly so if principals are deterred from pursuing innovative education strategies due to potential litigation risks. Consequently, the chapters will empower principals and teachers in the management of these concerns. This wide-ranging handbook, including case studies from around the world, will be of interest and value to both scholars of education law and practitioners.

The Law of Public Education

The Law of Public Education PDF

Author: Charles J. Russo

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781609303846

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This textbook-casebook incorporates recent developments in education law into its conceptual framework by offering updated analysis of major topics in education law. With new material in all of its sixteen chapters, the book includes significant updates on church-state relations, employee rights, and student rights. There are now two chapters on student rights; Chapter 13 examines student rights involving due process, discipline, and sexual harassment; Chapter 14 focuses on free speech including student internet use case excerpts from two differing Circuit court cases. The author also includes Supreme Court opinions on strip searches of students, teacher bargaining and free speech rights.

Schools for Misrule

Schools for Misrule PDF

Author: Walter K. Olson

Publisher: Encounter Books

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 1594032335

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Some imagine that the law schools possess a finer, purer moral sensitivity than the everyday America outside their walls. ("Welcome to the Republic of Conscience!" Yale Law dean Harold Koh announced to incoming students.) But as this book shows the pipe dream of training philosopher-monarchs not only leads to one policy disaster after another, but distracts law schools from the most useful function they can serve: training competent, ethical and suitably humble lawyers for tomorrow. --Book Jacket.

The Schoolhouse Gate

The Schoolhouse Gate PDF

Author: Justin Driver

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2019-08-06

Total Pages: 578

ISBN-13: 0525566961

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A Washington Post Notable Book of the Year A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice An award-winning constitutional law scholar at the University of Chicago (who clerked for Judge Merrick B. Garland, Justice Stephen Breyer, and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor) gives us an engaging and alarming book that aims to vindicate the rights of public school stu­dents, which have so often been undermined by the Supreme Court in recent decades. Judicial decisions assessing the constitutional rights of students in the nation’s public schools have consistently generated bitter controversy. From racial segregation to un­authorized immigration, from antiwar protests to compul­sory flag salutes, from economic inequality to teacher-led prayer—these are but a few of the cultural anxieties dividing American society that the Supreme Court has addressed in elementary and secondary schools. The Schoolhouse Gate gives a fresh, lucid, and provocative account of the historic legal battles waged over education and illuminates contemporary disputes that continue to fracture the nation. Justin Driver maintains that since the 1970s the Supreme Court has regularly abdicated its responsibility for protecting students’ constitutional rights and risked trans­forming public schools into Constitution-free zones. Students deriving lessons about citizenship from the Court’s decisions in recent decades would conclude that the following actions taken by educators pass constitutional muster: inflicting severe corporal punishment on students without any proce­dural protections, searching students and their possessions without probable cause in bids to uncover violations of school rules, random drug testing of students who are not suspected of wrongdoing, and suppressing student speech for the view­point it espouses. Taking their cue from such decisions, lower courts have upheld a wide array of dubious school actions, including degrading strip searches, repressive dress codes, draconian “zero tolerance” disciplinary policies, and severe restrictions on off-campus speech. Driver surveys this legal landscape with eloquence, highlights the gripping personal narratives behind landmark clashes, and warns that the repeated failure to honor students’ rights threatens our basic constitutional order. This magiste­rial book will make it impossible to view American schools—or America itself—in the same way again.

The Oxford Handbook of U.S. Education Law

The Oxford Handbook of U.S. Education Law PDF

Author:

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2021-06-22

Total Pages: 761

ISBN-13: 0190697431

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During the mid-to-late 20th Century, education law emerged as a distinct area of practice and scholarship in the United States. Attorneys began to develop specialties representing school districts, students, parents, and teachers, while law schools and colleges of education started to offer courses about the legal regulation of K-12 public schools. The statutory and common law governing schools grew rapidly, and developed in a manner that often treated public schools differently from other governmental entities. Now, law schools and colleges of education regularly offer an education law course. Many states' school administrator certificates require some familiarity with education law. The scholarly field of education law is rich and deep. Attorneys play a key role in education policy, as do state and federal legislatures and regulatory agencies. The issues range from school funding to supporting English learners; from racial equality to teachers' labor laws; from student privacy to school choice. Addressing those issues and more, The Oxford Handbook of U.S. Education Law provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of K-12 education law in the United States. A number of foundational chapters present a synthesis of general areas of law for those who seek an introduction. Dozens of other chapters build on those foundations, diving into various topics in a nuanced, yet accessible, way, creating value for those who seek to deepen or reframe their knowledge about a specific issue. Throughout the volume and especially in the last section, the authors also look to the future and thus help shape the direction of the field.

Public Legal Education

Public Legal Education PDF

Author: Richard Grimes

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-05-11

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 1000387062

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This book makes the case for a more legally literate society and then addresses why and how a law school might contribute to achieving that. Moreover examining what public legal education (PLE) is and the forms it can take, the book looks specifically at the ways in which a law school can get involved, including whether that is as part of an academic, credit-bearing, course or as extra-curricular activity. Divided into five main chapters, the book first examines the nature of PLE and why its provision is so central to the functioning of modern society. Models of PLE are then set out ranging from face-to-face tuition to the use of hard-copy material, including the growing importance of e-based technology. One model of PLE that has proven to be very attractive to law schools – Street Law – is described and analysed in detail. The book then turns to look at the considerations for a law school wishing to incorporate PLE into its offerings be that as part of the formal curriculum or not. The subject of evaluation is then raised – how might we find out if what we do by way of PLE is effective and how it might be improved upon? The final chapter reaches conclusions, some penned by the book’s author and others drawn from key figures in the PLE movement. This book provides a thorough examination of PLE in a law school context and contains a set of templates that can be implemented and/or adapted for use as the situation and jurisdiction dictate. An accessible and compelling read, this book will be of interest to law students, legal academics, practising lawyers, community activists and all those interested in PLE.