On Equal Terms

by Reed, Douglas S.

• ISBN13: 9780691113708
• ISBN10: 069111370X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-04-07
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

Since Brown v. Board of Education and the desegregation battles of the 1960s and 1970s, the legal pursuit of educational opportunity in the United States has been framed largely around race. But for nearly thirty years now, a less-noticed but controversial legal campaign has been afoot to equalize or improve the resources of poorly funded schools. This book examines both the consequences of efforts to use state constitutional provisions to reduce the "resource segregation" of American schools and the politics of the opposition to these decisions. On Equal Termscompares the relative success of school finance lawsuits to the project of school desegregation and explores how race and class present sharply different obstacles to courts. Since a 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that effectively deferred to the states in the matter of educational equity, about a third of state judiciaries have mandated reform of state-level educational funding systems. Douglas Reed analyzes both the rhetoric of reform and the varying effects of these controversial decisions while critiquing the courts' failure to more clearly define educational equity. Well-written with keen insight throughout, the book concludes with an intriguing policy proposal that acknowledges obstacles to such efforts. This proposal aims to enhance education by fostering racial and economic integration locally. Setting the stage for a more coherent debate on this controversial issue and expanding our understanding of constitutional design,On Equal Termswill have far-reaching implications for law, public policy, politics, and not least, the future of American education.

Author Biography

Douglas S. Reed is Assistant Professor of Government at Georgetown University.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. xiii
Race, Class, And Educational Opportunity
Courts and Educational Opportunity: The Movement from Race to Class	p. 3
The Judicial Impact on School Finance Reform	p. 15
Race, Class, and the Limits of Justice	p. 36
The Constitutional Ordering of Educational Opportunity
How Does a Constitution Mean? Constitutional Ordering and the Lessons of Educational Opportunity	p. 53
A Bounded Ambition: The Judicial Ordering of Educational Opportunity	p. 65
The Public's Opinion: Understanding Public Commitments toward Educational Opportunity	p. 92
Regimes of Inequality: The Organization of Educational Politics	p. 125
Conclusion: Constituting Education in America	p. 163
Appendixes	p. 183
Notes	p. 191
Bibliography	p. 217
Index	p. 229
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