The Policy Consequences of Garcetti v. Ceballos for Personnel Management in Public Schools

摘要

Arthur Goldberg, former United States Secretary of Labor and Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, once said, the concept of management rights is simply "a recognition of the fact that somebody must be the boss....People can't be wandering around at loose ends, each deciding what to do next. Management decides what the employee is to do" (Dale, 2008, p. 213). Goldberg's statement offers a suitable segue into the heart of this study about public employment and the constitutional rights to free speech as guaranteed by the First Amendment. The setting is public elementary and secondary schools of education (k-12), and the target audience is executive school administrators who serve as managers responsible for the development, supervision, evaluation, and discipline of other district staff. The purpose is to provide technical guidance to school administrators relative to the current laws, regulations, and legal considerations of the First Amendment's Free Speech Clause in k-12 public schools pursuant to the 2006 United States (U.S.) Supreme Court decision in Gil Garcetti, et al. v. Richard Ceballos. .