Law

The U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education was the most important educationrelated case in U.S. history, perhaps its most significant judgment ever. With Brown providing a major impetus in the ensuing years, the United States has [Page 559]undergone a myriad of educational, legal, and social transformations. Brown not only ushered in an era of equal educational opportunities in striking down racial segregation in public schools but also signaled the birth of the field known as education law or school law.

Prior to Brown, the Court addressed only a handful of education-related cases. Yet, now almost every year the Court resolves at least one school-related case. In fact, since the Court first addressed a dispute under the Establishment Clause in 1947, upholding a state's providing transportation for children who attend nonpublic schools in Everson v. Board of Education (1947), it addressed more than 30 cases in both school desegregation and religion.

In light of the significance that education law has assumed in the daily activities of educational leaders, this entry reflects on the centrality of education law in educational leadership preparation programs. The centrality of education law is reflected in a study conducted on behalf of the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA). The survey revealed that with 87.5% of UCEA's members offering courses in education law, it is the second most commonly taught subject in leadership programs. Furthermore, since many universities offer a variety of graduate and undergraduate classes in education law, it is likely to remain a crucial element in curricula, demonstrating that as an applied rather than a purely theoretical discipline, it is essential for educators at all levels.

The UCEA study and other indicators support the proposition that specialists in education law must help clarify the law so that it remains a valuable tool. Faculty members who specialize in education law can help to preserve the importance of education law by teaching students to focus on such basic concepts as due process and equal protection, essential elements in the development of sound policies and practices. In other words, as important as abstract legal principles or theories are, faculty members who teach education law must concentrate on ways to help practitioners apply these concepts rather than having them memorize case holdings apart from their applications in real-life situations.

Education law presents a unique intellectual challenge to prepare educational practitioners, whether board members, superintendents, principals, or teachers, to be proactive. Working in a discipline that tends to be reactive, faculty members teaching education law need to present their subject matter as a tool that should be applied in advance to help ensure that the school officials meet the needs of all of their constituents, ranging from students and parents to faculty, staff, and the local community. Yet, the goal of making the law proactive becomes complicated, because most changes generated by education law are reactive, and modifications come only after a decision has been reached via litigation. To this end, Brown is a typical example of how the law can be seen as reactive insofar as there would not have been a need for Brown if the schools in Topeka and elsewhere had met the needs of African American students.

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