The Law of Education: Educational Rights and the Roles of Virtues, Perfectionism, and Cultural Progress

Abstract

This manuscript recognizes the importance of rights-talk in the law of education, but encourages supplementing that rights-talk with a focus on some basic and largely uncontroversial personal and civic virtues; as well as on perfectionism in the sense of self-realization; and on genuine cultural progress over time. Each of these areas of emphasis I argue to be compatible with sound understandings of broadly liberal values, including freedom and autonomy; equality; dignity; and community. To illustrate both the problems and the possibilities of this expanded legal focus throughout the law of education, the manuscript then works through the example of the Supreme Court's Horne v. Flores case.

Keywords: education, rights, liberal values, virtues, perfectionism, progress