Digital Commons @ UDC Law (University of the District of Columbia Law Library)
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A Strike At The Heart Of Democracy: Why Legal Challenges To Felon Disenfranchisement Laws Should Succeed
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Charter Schools And Special Education: Part Of The Solution Or Part Of The Problem?
No full textThe Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)1 provides each child with a disability the opportunity to receive educational benefit in an appropriate program. The individual needs of the child drive the often resource intensive programs. On the other hand, public charter schools focus on providing more choices for education by aiming to do a better job with less money. Public Charter Schools accountability for progress and fiscal responsibility means that schools focus on doing more with less resources for the school as a whole. Public Charter schools\u27 mission of unique innovative instruction, free from local and state regulations that would limit their experimentation, depends on freedom from regulations, but the federal disability law that protects the rights of disabled students depends on regulation, thereby limiting the independence of charter schools. How can these seemingly different missions fit together? Despite the fact that public schools see charter schools as competition for student funds, the two systems must work together to provide appropriate programs for students with disabilities
Love You Madly: The Life And Times Of The Neighborhood Legal Services Program Of Washington, D.C.
No full textThis article is a brief historical examination of the origins of the Neighborhood Legal Services Program and an analysis of the work of the program as a federally-funded legal services program for forty years. Part I of this article examines the history of the program in the early years and the birth of the neighborhood concept in legal services. Part II analyzes the key precedent-setting housing cases the program litigated in the 1960\u27s and 1970\u27s. Part III addresses the criticisms of the program and reviews legal services in general. For instance, almost immediately from its inception, the idea of neighborhood-based legal services for the poor came under assault by political forces interested in destroying these organizations and their underlying governmental support. Finally, this article presents the obvious question: What is the real legacy and lessons left by the Neighborhood Legal Services Program as it continues its work amidst a much different legal services environment
Why The No Child Left Behind Act Needs To Be Restructured To Accomplish Its Goals And How To Do It
No full textThe No Child Left Behind Act ( NCLB or the Act ) 1 has created a once in a lifetime opportunity to improve American public education. NCLB has embraced vital goals for the new Information Age: academic proficiency for virtually all public school students and elimination of the severe racial/income achievement gap. The Act provides four pillars on which states and localities might build a bridge to reach the goals: higher standards; periodic testing to measure the extent to which the standards are being met; disaggregating test results by student subgroup; and reporting to the public. The critical question is how to build that bridge? What do the states, districts and schools need to do to dramatically improve learning so as to bridge the vast chasm that separates millions of children, particularly poor, black and Hispanic students, from the goals of the NCLB
