National Momentum for School Vouchers

A couple years ago, I would have said that the growth prospects for school voucher plans were not  good. Proposals to allow students to attend private and religious schools using public money had died in several states, court rulings had not been favorable in places such as Florida where there were strongly worded constitutional bans (“Blaine amendments”) on giving public money to religious schools, research on student achievement in Milwaukee, the nation’s main show case of voucher use, had shown nothing impressive, and  Congress had pulled the plug on a voucher program in Washington, D.C.

The landscape is much different now, thanks primarily to the 2010 elections and the wave of Republican victories.

There’s legislative action on multiple fronts in Wisconsin. Bills to lift the enrollment cap on Milwaukee’s voucher program and to allow suburban schools to accept city of Milwaukee voucher students are moving ahead. A proposal to phase out the family income limits for voucher recipients has brought  controversy and seems likely to morph into raising, but not eliminating, the income standard. And this week, Gov. Scott Walker said he supports expanding the program to include Racine, Beloit, and Green Bay.

It is useful to put the local developments in national context. Here are three examples of what’s going on:

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Quill Winners Explore Visa Adjudications and Limits of Public Trust Doctrine

Congratulations to 3Ls Cain Oulahan and Gabe Johnson-Karp, the winners of this year’s Gold and Silver Quill Awards, respectively.  The Quill Awards recognize the top two student comments published in the Marquette Law Review.

Cain’s comment is “The American Dream Deferred: Family Separation and Immigrant Visa Adjudications at U.S. Consulates Abroad.”  He explores the tension between the general preference in American law in favor of keeping families together and some specific requirements of immigration law that can break families apart for many years while a parent or spouse seeks to obtain a visa from an American consulate abroad.  As Cain puts its,

This problem arose with the creation by Congress in 1996 of what are known as the unlawful presence bars to admission.  After more than ten years since the passage of the unlawful presence bars, it is now appropriate to look closely at their impact and examine whether they constitute sound public policy. This Comment argues that they do not. This Comment explains how the system puts families through unnecessary and unjustifiable hardship by imposing a punishment that is disproportionate to the seriousness of the immigration violation. This Comment points to the lack of evidence that the unlawful presence bars significantly deter illegal immigration, and the fact that they tear families apart or force them to move abroad. For these reasons, this Comment recommends that Congress make sensible changes that will promote family unity while imposing penalties that are more proportionate to the seriousness of the immigration violation.

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Merit Scholarships and Training for Hierarchy

When the Critical Legal Studies movement was still vibrant during the 1980s, Harvard Law Professor Duncan Kennedy frequently argued that, beyond exploring the cases and rules, legal education offered training in hierarchy.  Students (and many professors as well) came to appreciate the steps on our social ladders and how to climb or, at least, remain balanced on those steps.  Recent developments involving law schools’ use of merit scholarships with stipulations (“stips,” as some students call them) teach lessons in hierarchy in ways Kennedy never imagined.

The New York Times reported on May 1, 2011, that 80 percent of law schools are now awarding merit scholarships with stipulations and that these scholarships are gradually replacing conventional need-based scholarships.  The University of Florida Law School, for example, requires students to maintain a 3.2 grade-point average to keep their merit scholarships, as does Wayne State University Law School.  At Chicago-Kent Law School, merit scholarship recipients have a choice: They can receive $9000 annually for three years with no stipulations or $15,000 annually if they maintain a 3.25 or higher.  Ninety percent opt for the latter, perhaps unaware that most students earn nothing near a 3.25.

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