Education & Law – Page 16 – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

R.I.P. Derrick Bell, Pioneer of Critical Race Theory

Post author:Lisa A. Mazzie
Post published:October 7, 2011
Post category:Civil Rights Education & Law Legal Scholarship Public Race & Law

On Wednesday of this week, the world lost several visionaries. Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, a prominent civil rights activist, and Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, Inc. both died. But there was a third visionary whose light went out on Wednesday: Derrick Bell.

Bell was a visiting professor of law at New York University School of Law when he died. He is considered a pioneer of critical race theory, which theory examines issues of race, racism, and power in law and legal institutions. But while he had spent most of his life as an academic, his roots – and his defining experiences – were in civil rights.

The Supreme Court and the Fate of the Ministerial Exception

Post author:Scott C. Idleman
Post published:September 25, 2011
Post category:Civil Rights Constitutional Interpretation Education & Law First Amendment Public Religion & Law U.S. Supreme Court

In 1999, Cheryl Perich began service as a lay teacher at the Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School in Redford, Michigan. A year later, she became a “called teacher,” selected by the congregation to serve as a commissioned minister and charged with duties of a more pastoral nature, such as teaching religion classes, leading the students in devotional exercises, and participating in weekly chapel functions, though continuing to teach predominantly secular subjects.

In June 2004, however, Perich developed symptoms of a medical disorder, eventually diagnosed as narcolepsy. Despite obtaining in February 2005 a doctor’s certification of her ability to return to work, the school had already made alternative arrangements and proposed that she resign her call. After she threatened legal action for alleged disability discrimination, the congregation then rescinded her call and she was duly terminated from her teaching position at the school.

Singing a September School-Start Song

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:August 30, 2011
Post category:Education & Law Milwaukee Public Schools Public Wisconsin Law & Legal System

Thursday will be the first day of the new school year for the vast majority of public school students in Wisconsin. Why? Because that’s the law. No, not that school start on a Thursday, but that it not start earlier than September 1. And why is that? Because tourism industry leaders lobbied so hard for it.

In fact, when the law went through the legislature in the late 1990s, it was handled in the tourism committees of the Assembly and Senate, and not in the education committees, even though the subject was school calendars. I’ve always thought that said something about priorities in Wisconsin.

School opening dates in many districts had moved up over the years into late August. This was a problem, in the eyes of those in the tourism business. They said they wanted kids and parents to have the maximum opportunity to take vacations that build healthy family bonds and life-long memories. (As the song from Man of La Mancha put it, I’m only thinking of him.) Let’s assume they also wanted to maximize their summer season and hold on to their high school student employees longer.

So, since 2000, state law 118.045 has specified “no public school may commence the school term until September 1.” Athletic contests are exempted, as are in-service days for staff (which is why most teachers went back to work Tuesday or so). Schools on so-called year-round calendars (which mean they take shorter summer breaks but have the same total of school days) are exempt. And other schools that convince the state Department of Public Instruction there are “extraordinary reasons” may be granted exceptions. In Milwaukee, that includes several schools that have International Baccalaureate programs that call for starting in August. Private schools and higher-education institutions are not included in the law.