The Study On The Protection Of Constitutional Rights In American Higher Education

Promoted by the progress in science, technology and the democratization of administration, positive changes have taken place in protecting the constitutional rights of teachers and students in colleges along with the rapid development of American higher education after World War II. By taking many kinds of approaches, the federal government has broken some obstacles from tradition and bettered the constitutional rights protecting in higher education in forms, contents and scope, etc. Focusing on the role and functions of the Supreme Court in the operation of public institutions of higher education, it examines the evolution of protecting the constitutional rights within it. It has been proved the Supreme Court played an important role in the improvement of American higher education. Compared with the federal administrative and legislature's policies, the decision of the Supreme Court was much more compulsory. In spite that the legal power of education belongs to states according to the constitution, the principles from the famous decision coming from the Supreme Court was actually the educational policies of the whole land.From the prospective of judicial adjudication on education, the study attempts to draw some general conclusions about the relation of American higher education and social development, such as institutional autonomy has generally promoted efficiency and flexibility in the operation of these institutions, e.g. the management of higher institution in an appropriate limitation and rational supervision from the government is essential, while it is with the obeying the innate laws of education. In fact, the relationship between the higher education and the law was much complicated, but the theme of the legalization of higher education is how to protect university autonomy and academic freedom and how to protect the constitutional rights of teachers and students. Teachers and students are the prime participator in the operation of higher education, through which the results of higher education are mainly showed, so the principal part of constitutional rights in higher education should be them. The condition of the protection of the rights has direct influence on the development of higher education. Therefore, the core of the study deals mainly with the protecting of the teachers and students in college after World War II.In this study, we can realize that in the development of American higher education what are the problems and conflicts within American higher education from a microcosmic view and how these problems are solved. If combining with the macrocosmic methods, maybe we can have some comprehensive and objective knowledge of the American higher education. Moreover, there were some common persons involved in this study, It probably can do some good to the history of education, which used to pay much more attention to the famous educators and principles while denying the common ones.While analyzing the better aspects of the constitutional rights in the realm of American higher education, we also realize the blemish and shortcoming existing in itself or developing later. Among these problems, some are from cultures and traditions, some are from politics and economics, all have influences on them. Therefore, when drawing lessons from the American higher education's development, we should examine our own cultural tradition, politics and economics and it is necessary for us to renew our tradition so that we can catch up with the changing world, which is another important conclusion of this study.