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1 Mich. L. & Pol'y Rev. 331 (1996)
Goss v. Lopez: Not the Devil; nor the Panacea

handle is hein.journals/mlpr1 and id is 337 raw text is: GOSS V. LOPEZ: NOT THE DEVIL; NOR THE PANACEA Hon. Patricia Wald, Fourth Panelist* I am probably the only member of the panel who can compete with Dr. Kristol on the good old days since we are in roughly the same age bracket. I went to a parochial school where the nuns rapped you on your knuckles, and I remember one poor young unfortunate man whom the sister would take by the ears and bang against the blackboard. I don't know what happened to him, and I am not sure that Goss v. Lopez1 would have solved that particular problem. I also think that unlike being a lawyer and a judge, perhaps the only real expertise I bring to this panel is that I am the mother of five chil- dren, four of whom went through the public schools the entire way until college and the fifth all but the last two years. I am also the mother of five grandchildren, two out of three of whom are in the public schools. One is only eighteen months, so he has not made it there yet. Therefore, my comments may hold some value. As the anchorwoman on this panel, let me make a few comments regarding the debate about legalizing or constitutionalizing the public schools. I think it is a false rap. I do believe there are acute problems in the urban public schools because we have come a long way from P.S. whatever-number-it-was that Dr. Kristol attended, or even the small- town school that I attended. But I do not think Goss and its progeny are very relevant to the real problems of today's schools. I do not think that they either hurt the schools as they operate, or that in their present form they actually help a great deal. Let me make a few points. The first is that despite having been a beneficiary of the good old days and having watched my kids go through public schools, both before and after Goss, I feel very strongly that the primary interest of the student is staying in school, in getting an education. This is not so different from the one student right recog- nized by Dr. Kristol. I would point out that the fairly meager procedural rights laid down by Goss, which were not followed up by very much more since, are attuned to making sure that the schools have not made a * Circuit Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. 1. 419 U.S. 565 (1975).

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