What happens when federal officials try to accomplish goals that depend on the resources and efforts of state and local governments? Focusing on the nation′s experience with the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), Manna′s engaging case study considers just that question. Beyond the administrative challenges NCLB unleashed, Collision Course examines the dynamics at work when federal policymakers hold state and local governments accountable for results. Ambitions for higher performance collide with governing structures and practices. Were the collisions valuable for their potential to transform education policy, or has the law inflicted too much damage on state and local institutions responsible for educating the nation′s youth? The results have been both positive and negative. As Manna points to increased capabilities in states and localities, he also looks at expanded bureaucratic requirements. Collision Course offers a balanced and in-depth assessment of a policy that has sparked heated debate over a broad expanse of time- from NCLB′s adoption through its implementation to the Obama administration′s attempts to shift away. Federalism, the policymaking process, and the complexity of education policy all get their due in this accessible and analytical supplement.

How the United States can provide equal educational opportunity to every child The United States Supreme Court closed the courthouse door to federal litigation to narrow educational funding and opportunity gaps in schools when it ruled in San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez in 1973 that the Constitution does not guarantee a right to education. Rodriguez pushed reformers back to the state courts where they have had some success in securing reforms to school funding systems through education and equal protection clauses in state constitutions, but far less success in changing the basic structure of school funding in ways that would ensure access to equitable and adequate funding for schools. Given the limitations of state school funding litigation, education reformers continue to seek new avenues to remedy inequitable disparities in educational opportunity and achievement, including recently returning to federal court. This book is the first comprehensive examination of three issues regarding a federal right to education: why federal intervention is needed to close educational opportunity and achievement gaps; the constitutional and statutory legal avenues that could be employed to guarantee a federal right to education; and, the scope of what a federal right to education should guarantee. A Federal Right to Education provides a timely and thoughtful analysis of how the United States could fulfill its unmet promise to provide equal educational opportunity and the American Dream to every child, regardless of race, class, language proficiency, or neighborhood.

State and Federal Administrative Law, Second Edition, contains thorough, up-to-date coverage of administrative law issues in both federal and state contexts. Although the book can be used for a course that focuses primarily on federal law, its dual coverage allows an instructor to highlight the insights that can emerge from a comparison between federal and state approaches to the same issues. The book exposes students to a broad sample of the federal, state, and local administrative agencies that they will encounter in their professional lives. The book also contains many short, concrete problems that enable instructors to make use of the problem method.