Arizona State Law Journal presents:
“Education at a Crossroads: Law, Power, and the Future.”
November 13, 2026, from 9:30am to 4:30pm
Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law
Education in America is at an inflection point. Federal rollbacks of civil rights enforcement and the Department of Education, legislative campaigns to restrict and control curricular content, the rapid expansion of voucher programs and education savings accounts, and the rise of AI-powered instruction are collectively challenging the legal frameworks that have governed public education for decades. At the same time, demographic change, the growth of homeschooling and microschooling networks, and deepening political polarization over what schools are for and whom they ought to serve have intensified conflicts over the constitutional and statutory foundations of American education. Courts, legislatures, and administrative agencies are being asked to resolve questions that go to the heart of public education as a democratic institution: who controls schools, what they can and should teach, and whether a common educational project remains legally or politically viable.
This Symposium brings together legal scholars from across the country to examine the constitutional, statutory, and structural forces driving that transformation. It will address five areas of inquiry:
- What do constitutional commitments to liberty and equality demand of public education, and how are those commitments being contested and redefined?
- How does law construct and perpetuate racial hierarchy in educational institutions?
- How do schools transmit values and socialize students, and what legal constraints govern discipline, curriculum, and the formation of democratic citizens within them?
- How is the balance of power between families, children, and the state currently being renegotiated, and what does that mean for public education as a collective institution?
- What threats does the current moment pose to academic freedom and institutional governance in higher education?
Featured Contributors
Derek Black, Professor of Law and Ernest F. Hollings Chair in Constitutional Law
University of South Carolina, Joseph F. Rice School of Law
LaToya Baldwin Clark, Professor of Law
University of California, Los Angeles School of Law
Justin Driver, Deputy Dean and Robert R. Slaughter Professor of Law
Yale Law School
Jonathan Feingold, Professor of Law
Boston University School of Law
Janel George, Associate Professor of Law
Georgetown University Law Center
Vinay Harpalani, Professor of Law and Don L. & Mabel F. Dickason Endowed Chair in Law
University of New Mexico School of Law
Osamudia James, Henry P. Brandis Distinguished Professor of Law
University of Norh Carolina School of Law
James S. Liebman, James L. Dohr Professor of Law
Columbia Law School
Bennett Lunn, Judicial Law Clerk
Columbia Law School
Caitlin Millat, Associate Professor of Law
Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law
Rachel F. Moran, University Distinguished Professor of Law and Director of the Education Law Program
Texas A&M University School of Law
Claire S. Raj, Associate Dean for Clinics and Externships
University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law
Matthew Patrick Shaw, Assistant Professor of Law and Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Education
Vanderbilt Law School
Daiquiri Steele, Assistant Professor of Law
University of Alabama School of Law
Joshua Weishar, Professor of Law
Suffolk University Law School