Education Equity, Law PubPol

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

This course originates from the premise that today’s educational inequities along racial lines within the U.S. K-12 public education system are not aberrations, but instead are reflections of this nation’s history of slavery, imposition of Jim Crow law, persistent de facto segregation, and systemic racism. Working from that premise, students will explore how public policies, by their design, implementation, or legal interpretation, can have the effect of eradicating or deepening educational inequities for students of color. Students will examine policies across a range of issues that disproportionately impact the educational experiences and outcomes of students of color, including school discipline, integration and segregation, school choice, and school finance. Students will do this by exploring the full dimensions of policy, including how data can inform policy interventions and expose or mask inequities, or how courts’ interpretations of policy can modify meaning and impact. Students will obtain an understanding of the complexities of educational inequalities along racial lines, as well as an appreciation of the promise and limits of public policy to eradicate them. Professor Janel George