Week 2 slide 2

The landmark cases regarding education are summarized as follows: 1. Brown v. Board of Education desegregated schools, ruling that segregated schools are inherently unequal. 2. Engel v. Italy struck down non-denominational prayer in public schools, as it violated the Establishment Clause. 3. Tinker v. Des Moines ruled that students have the right to free speech and can express their dissatisfaction without interfering with school. 4. Lemon v. Kurtzman determined that government aid cannot be used for religious purposes in schools. 5. Lau v. Nickel stated that schools cannot discriminate based on race or national origin, and must help students with limited English proficiency to bridge the language barrier. These are a few of the landmark cases regarding education. The first is Brown v. Board of Education. This ruling overturned Plessy v. Ferguson that determined that schools should be segregated based on skin color. It desegregated schools, ruling that separated schools are inherently unequal. The separate but equal doctrine was determined to be in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The second case is Engel v. Italy. This struck down a New York State rule allowing public schools to hold non-denominational prayer. This showed the approval of one kind of prayer, which violated the Establishment Clause. This stated that the government should not be allowed to endorse any one religion. The third would be Tinker v. Des Moines. Students who, in this school, wore black armbands to show dissatisfaction of the U.S. foreign policy during the Vietnam War. The school had a problem with this, saying that it was against the dress code, but the court determined that the students were allowed to wear the armbands because it didn't interfere with school. They also ruled that the students were protected under their right for free speech. The fourth case would be Lemon v. Kurtzman. This court decision determined that government aid cannot be used for religious purposes. Policy must be non-secular to be used to fund schools. The last case I have mentioned here is Lau v. Nickel. This case determined that you can't discriminate on race or national origin. This was in particular related to students who were not native English speakers, and it said that schools must take steps to help fix the language barrier of students with limited English efficiency in order for them to be equal with their peers.