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Articles of Interest
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State & Local Policy
Dominion Foundation provides $500,000 grant for rural education program
Virginia Business
May 5, 2015
The Dominion Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Richmond-based Dominion Resources, has given a $500,000 grant to the Virginia Foundation for Community College Education (VFCCE) for its Rural Virginia Horseshoe Initiative.
“This significant investment from the Dominion Foundation will be used to further the mission of the Rural Virginia Horseshoe Initiative, which aims to transform Virginia’s rural communities through higher education and 21st century job skills,” former Gov. Gerald L. Baliles, the chairman of the VFCCE, said in a statement.
Rural Virginia Horseshoe Initiative is named for the horseshoe-shaped arc that is formed when the colleges in rural regions of Virginia are marked on a map.
School districts spend big on board travel, but don't like to share details
Daily Press
May 9, 2015
Local school systems spend thousands of dollars every year on travel — including covering hotels, flights and meals for school board members — but details can be hard to come by.
Buried deep in school budgets and financial records, travel spending for many boards and senior administrators has been edging higher in the past few years, even as school officials complain that tight budgets are crimping their ability to pay for programs parents want or raises teachers and staff seek.
And finding out exactly who travels where and for what purpose at taxpayer expense apparently requires hours of work for school officials — work that some school systems say they won't undertake unless they are paid.
York County initially said it would charge at least $1,000 to supply the information, since doing so would require a minimum of 50 hours of work. Hampton said it would take 13 hours.
School transgender rights bill passes in Fairfax County, Virginia
Washington Times
May 7, 2015
Hundreds of Northern Virginia residents voiced outrage last week when the Fairfax County Public School Board changed its nondiscrimination policy to include “gender identity” without consulting parents. The amended policy could allow male students who identify as female to use girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms, among other changes.
“This isn’t over,” said former school board member Mychele Brickner. “People are very disturbed by what just happened. … They didn’t take parents into account. The fact that they passed a motion like this and created an additional protected class in the policy, and then they are going to let people see later what this means, that’s ridiculous. That’s exactly what happened with Obamacare.”
Federal Policy
Congress Temporarily Renews Funding Program For Rural Schools
NPR
May 7, 2015
Rural counties and school districts can now breathe a sigh of relief. Federal money for schools to offset the loss of tax revenue from nontaxable federal lands expired last September. The fix was tucked into another bill, but it's only temporary.
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
Rural school districts won't have to squeeze their budgets quite as tightly as they'd feared. A funding program that Congress let expire last year has been extended. It's called the Secure Rural Schools Act, and it pays hundreds of millions of dollars to states that have a lot of federal land. Boise State Public Radio's Emilie Ritter Saunders reports.
EMILIE RITTER SAUNDERS, BYLINE: When President Barack Obama signed a $200 billion Medicare bill, it was dubbed the doc fix.
As part of the Obama Administration's commitment to drive innovations in higher education and increase college completion, affordability and quality outcomes, the U.S. Department of Education today announced the availability of $60 million in Fiscal Year 2015 in the First in the World (FITW) program. Click here for the Federal Register notice for applications. FITW grants will fund the development and testing of innovative approaches and strategies to improve postsecondary education attainment. Of the $60 million available this year, the competition has a set-aside of $16 million for institutions designated as minority-serving institutions, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
"Through the First in the World program, the Obama Administration is calling on colleges and universities to help develop the most promising approaches to improve outcomes for students, particularly for those who are underrepresented, underprepared or from low income backgrounds," U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said." We look forward to hearing from institutions as they seek to pioneer new and innovative ways to increase college success."
"What voters are looking for is someone to be a champion for everyday people. For young people, that's debt-free college," Clinton's campaign manager, Robby Mook, said on Wednesday. The campaign later said that Mook was simply describing the concerns that motivate young voters, not advocating for a policy, and that Clinton would lay out more detailed proposals on higher education in the near future.
As Sahil Kapur reports for Bloomberg, Mook's statement follows months of work by activists and endorsements of the idea by Sen. Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont who is challenging Clinton, and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, who many expect will join the race.
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How can universities work at reducing sexual assaults on campus?
A recent survey of millenials by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) found that 73% of millenials say sexual assault is somewhat or very common on college and university campuses. About one-third of woment millenials (34%) reported that a close friend or family member had been sexually assaulted (see chart below for a breakdown by race.)
Campus sexual assault continues to be a fiercely debated topic in higher education and the media. For example, the Center for Public Policy here at the Wilder School held “ A Symposium on Gender Violence and Campus Safety Issues” on March 18th. A number of initiatives, including the Start by Believing campaign, have sought to develop specific actions that would begin to change the culture on campuses. An effort in Central Virginia involved 3 colleges, 6 police departments and 10 other organizations, including VCU and the City of Richmond.
Best practices in combating campus sexual assaults is also a timely topic. One area of debate is whether justice for victims should focus primarily on harsh punishments for rapists or abusers or whether efforts that focus on rehabilitation are better for helping assault survivors heal. The National Journal recently ran an article that features Mary Koss, a researcher who first highlighted the prevalence of campus sexual assualt in the 1980's and who has recently begun calling for justice solutions that focus on rehabilitation.
Here are a few other links to academic research on best practices in preventing sexual assaults.
In keeping with this topic, in our poll snapshot, we look at another question from our 2015 Commonwealth Education Poll - whether the public believes administrator actions can reduce the prevalence of sexual assualt.
We also excerpt a 2009 Ed Law Newsletter that reviewed legal responsibility of school systems when it comes to peer-to-peer sexual harassment.
Sincerely,
CEPI
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Poll Snapshot: Can administrators take action to curb sexual assaults on campus?
As we've noted before in this newsletter, the public's sense of whether administrator action can make a difference in reducing the number of sexual assaults is an important question when analyzing public support for certain measures. If people feel that administrators can make a difference but don't take action, this may indicate more public support for efforts that take discretion away from university administrators (e.g. mandatory reporting laws).
This past year, we asked a representative sample of Virginians about this question - was their view closer to believing that actions by university administrators could significantly decrease sexual assualts or would sexual assaults happen regardless of actions taken?
The chart above shows that a majority of Virginians (61%) are not fatalistic about the incidence of sexual assault - they believe that actions available to college administrators can significantly decrease the number of sexual assaults. This is compared to 35% who think sexual assaults will happen regardless of administrator actions.
There were some interesting demographic differences, however. Those with a college degree (70%) said more frequently that administrator actions can make a difference, compared to only 61% of those with some college education and 53% of respondents who had a high school diploma or less. Interestingly, though family income is often correlated with education level, in this case there is no similar pattern between income and education. Sixty percent of those with family incomes below $50,000 and those with incomes between $50,000 and $100,000 thought administrator actions could make a significant difference. Those with family incomes above $100,000 were only slightly more likely (62%) to think the same. This may indicate that there is something about going to college itself that makes people more likely to see administrators as having the power to effect change. Likewise, administrators could conclude from this that their alumni, more than the general public, are going to be the ones calling on them to take action.
There also appears to be an interesting partisan affiliation divide on this question. On many issues in society we will see agreement wax or wane consistently for a particular question as one moves from Republican to Independent to Democrat and vice versa. In this case though, Independents are least likely to see administrator action as effective - only 50% felt that such action will significantly decrease the number of sexual assaults, compared to 57% of Republicans and 67% of Democrats.
(To read the full results of the poll, visit our website. Question 23 is cited above on campus policy regarding sexual assault - topline results are on page 31; crosstabs are on pages 67-68.)
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Student-Peer Sexual Harassment: The Fitzgerald Case
Overview
Over the past decade sexual harassment of students by other students has become a problem in public school systems across this country. While over the past two decades there have been a number of lower court decisions on point, the extent of the duty to protect students from student-peer sexual harassment (i.e., sexual harassment of students by other students) still remains ripe for litigation. The confounding variable to deal with in such cases is best expressed in the following question: How can acts of student-peer sexual harassment be shown as different from student teasing, name calling, bullying, and immature physical horse play? In other words a clear and concise definition of student-peer sexual harassment does not exist. It therefore follows that court cases are decided from state-to-state on a case-by-case basis mainly because of the unique nature of each situation (i.e., specific facts and circumstances).
Title IX and Remedy for Student-Peer Sexual Harassment. As legal experts tell us, “Title IX …was enacted to rid educational institutions of sex discrimination.” Alexander and Alexander (2008). And, “[s]tudents aggrieved by peer sexual harassment generally seek redress under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972….” Ford (2005) More specifically, these same experts remind us that the United States Supreme Court first applied Title IX (20 U.S.C. 1681 , et seq. 1972) to situations of sex discrimination in educational institutions in Cannon v. University of Chicago (1979). Ford (2005) It must be noted, however, that lower courts often have refused to expand the scope of the statute by consistently ruling that Congress did not intend any implied rights under the remedy specific Title IX. Vacca and Bosher (2008)
Section 1983 and Civil Rights Torts. For many years, the Civil Rights Act of 1871 was largely ignored as a source of remedy. Intended to implement the guarantees of the Fourteenth Amendment, and Codified at 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 (hereafter referred to as Section 1983), it was not until 1991 that the provisions of the Act (directed at acts of misconduct and abuse by state officials) were made applicable to local public school officials and administrators. Vacca and Hudgins (1982)
While Section 1983 does not provide substantive rights it is, however, a flexible and broad based statute and serves as a viable source of remedy for violations of federally protected rights. It must be stressed that a possibility exists that some Section 1983 actions may come into a federal court after originating in a state court. Vacca and Hudgins (1982) However, to successfully sustain a Section 1983 suit, the complaining party bears the burden of proof to demonstrate that an individual or individuals (person, or persons, or entity) was carrying out state authority when the alleged civil rights violations took place. In recent years, 42 U.S.C. 1983 (often referred to as a civil rights tort action) has given rise to an increasing number of both employee and student litigation—including student-peer sexual harassment cases.
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Policy Implications
The United States Supreme Court made it clear in Fitzgerald (2009) that both public school systems and individual school officials may be taken to court where student-on-student sexual harassment situations have occurred in their schools. The Court also made it very clear in Fitzgerald (2009) that parents who allege that that their child is the victim of sexual harassment by other students have access to multiple sources of both injunctive relief and remedy in the form of damages.
Because the issue before the Court was narrow and technical (Title IX), what is not specifically addressed in Fitzgerald (2009) relates to the facts of the case and importance of the immediate responses of the school principal to parental concerns on behalf of their daughter. Nor does the Court comment on the follow-up investigative steps taken by school administrators. In my view the facts speak for themselves. As the lower courts had determined, plaintiff parents could not demonstrate by sufficient evidence that school officials were deliberately indifferent to their daughter’s harassment allegations.
The suggestions that follow are intended for consideration by local school boards as policies dealing with student-peer sexual harassment are drafted. These suggestions have been gleaned from the facts and court opinions in the Fitzgerald (2009) case.
School board policies must make it clear that:
- Acts of student-peer sexual harassment shall not be tolerated on school property, on school buses, and at school sponsored and/or school sanctioned activities.
- All school system personnel (both professional and support personnel) are to immediately report situations of suspected student-peer sexual harassment to the principal of the school where the suspected harassment offenses have occurred and/or where the students involved are enrolled.
- School principals are responsible for immediately contacting the parents of all students involved and promptly launch an administrative investigation into the situation.
- All reports of and investigations into suspected student-peer sexual harassment are confidential.
- Where student-peer harassment is established the school principal shall immediately contact parents of the students involved.
- The perpetrator student shall be promptly disciplined according to appropriate disciplinary options specified in the school system’s Student Code of Conduct.
- School counselors, school psychologists, and school social workers shall make themselves available on request to the student victim and her/his parents.
To read the full brief, visit our website. |
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