Analyzing the Historical Role of the Courts and the Constitution in 21st Century Education Issues

Abstract

Education is of critical importance to our society, shaping the young people who will influence our future and serving as a battleground for the issues that we are wrestling with today. Since it is so important, there has been a considerable amount of debate from the many stakeholders involved in every aspect of education. Many of these debates make their way to the court system, and the decisions that come out of these courts have had serious impacts on education and beyond. This is seen in particular with the areas of school funding, free speech in schools, special education, and school integration and affirmative action. In this thesis, I aim to analyze the role of the courts in each of these content areas in order to understand how the courts have historically impacted education and how they continue to impact it through the legacies of their decisions and through current and future cases.