The New Law of the Curriculum

Abstract

Thirty years ago, a treatise on the law of the school curriculum would have begun by stressing that pursuant to the Tenth Amendment the authority to determine the content of the program of the public schools resides in the states. From that premise, the treatise would have turned to a recitation of the relevant state constitutional provisions as they affected the establishment and operation of the public educational systems of the states. Attention then might have been paid to how the state legislatures carried out their constitutional duties and powers in specifying the content of the school program and in allocating administrative authority over the schools. The treatise would have reviewed the few basic curricular requirements of the legislatures, and we would have been informed that the states had required that schools offer and students take courses in American history, the U.S. constitution and state constitutions, the principles of good citizenship, English, arithmetic, the effects of alcoholic drinks, and the rules of road safety. Religious exercises, the treatise would have informed us, could be and were required in the public schools, although by 1943 the Supreme Court had prohibited the requiring of students, on pain of expulsion, to salute the flag. The treatise would also have informed us about the textbook selection laws adopted in some 20 states, as well as other state statutes affecting the length of time for which textbooks must be adopted by local districts. If there were any controversial issues covered by the treatise, they would have involved such questions as whether, under the state constitution, a local district could offer separate schools for the black and white races, whether a local district had the delegated authority to offer a particular program or course, and whether a parent had the right to exempt his or her child from a particular course.