Educational Choice: The Legacy of Meyer v. Nebraska and Pierce v. Society of Sisters

Abstract

Why are more and more American families opting for alternatives to the ordinary public schools for their children? Charter schools, private schools – parochial or secular – and home schooling are all increasingly popular. In part, there are longstanding concerns about the educational quality of many public schools – including by comparison to much-less-lavishly-funded state schools in other countries – and there is evidence that educational quality here has been eroding even further in recent years. Moreover, there are growing concerns about ideological bias in public-school classrooms, and about extraordinary steps taken at school involving children’s sexuality, and whether parents are to be kept in the dark about these.

This article introduces a symposium on the 100th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decisions in the famous Meyer and Pierce cases on school choice and the right to teach and learn independently of the state curriculum. The article assesses the legal and educational issues confronting school choice today, and likely to arise in the future.

The Meyer and Pierce decisions are more controversial today, if anything, than they were when they were handed down and for a long time afterward. But these decisions—so long as they last—ensure that educational alternatives, and parental choice about their children’s schooling, have a degree of constitutional protection.

Document Type

Article

Year

2025

Publication Title

Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues

Volume

26

Number

1

Starting Page

1

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