Education Studies 213 - Education, Policy, and Law

Offered as EDST 213/AMST 213

In just the last few years the United States Supreme Court has upended numerous legal precedents and dramatically altered the landscape of American K-12 and higher education. In Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (2022) the Court effectively overturned Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971) which had prevented the excessive entanglement of religion and public schooling and in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (2023) the Court ruled that affirmative action was unconstitutional, ending the nearly 50-year-old practice in higher education. Schools are particularly fascinating sites for navigating the tensions inherent to democratic society. This course examines the impact of American law on education policy and interrogates how Americans have used the law to pursue their education policy goals. Questions of integration and segregation, financing and equity, free speech rights and parental rights, privacy and surveillance, inclusion and special services, and religious practice and entanglement will all be discussed in this course as students become experts in how two pillars of American life—schooling and the law—interact to shape American society and democracy.

Limited to 20 students. Spring 2026. Professor McLeod IV.

How to handle overenrollment: The enrollment cap will give priority first to seniority and then by major of the course listing.

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: class discussion, presentations to peers, legal research, critical reading, and critical thinking.