The Confluence of Law and Education

There is clearly a fear of the law in the schools. Organizations like Common Good and Public Agenda have documented it repeatedly. In Judging School Discipline, New York University Professor of Sociology and Education Richard Arum concludes that case law over the past four decades has created a general crisis in moral authority that has educators confused and anxious. Philip K. Howard, founder of Common Good, observes in The Collapse of the Common Good that dealings in schools “. . . are fraught with legal anxiety . . . Doing something wrong is not what scares most Americans. What we are afraid of is someone claiming we did.”