Preston Green III

John and Maria Neag Professor of Urban Education

Educational Leadership

---

Titles:

John and Maria Neag Professor of Urban Education
Professor of Educational Leadership and Law

Academic Degrees:

Ed.D., Educational Administration, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1995
J.D., Columbia University, 1992
B.A., Government, University of Virginia, 1989

Areas of Expertise:

Charter Schools

School Vouchers

School Finance

School Desegregation

Civil Rights

Biography:

Preston Green is the John and Maria Neag Professor of Urban Education and Professor of Educational Leadership and Law at the University of Connecticut. He is a nationally recognized expert on the legal issues surrounding charter schools, school vouchers, student rights, school desegregation, and school finance. Before arriving at UConn, Professor Green taught education law courses covering both K-12 and higher education contexts at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Penn State. He was also a visiting professor for three consecutive years at Wesleyan University.

Professor Green draws from his personal experiences and academic training to find creative legal solutions to ensure that all students’ civil rights are protected in this changing educational landscape.

Professor Green’s research addresses cutting-edge issues such as reparations, education privatization, and religion in education. He has written five books as well as numerous book chapters, law review articles, and education journal articles. Recent publications include “All Aboard!: Making Charter School Boards All-Purpose State Actors Under the Supreme Court’s Amtrak Case” (2024); “Segregation and School Funding: How Housing Discrimination Reproduces Unequal Opportunity” (2022); and “School Finance, Race, and Reparations” (2021).

Professor Green is a highly sought-after speaker on a wide range of education law and policy topics, including education reform and DEI. He has given presentations and lectures to universities, policymakers, advocacy groups, and professional organizations. Examples include Princeton, Vanderbilt, Columbia, Georgetown, the Advancement Project, the Network for Public Education, Public Funds for Public Schools, the National Education Association, the American Bar Association, and the Law School Admissions Council, and the Spencer Foundation.

Professor Green has also provided his expertise on education law to the media. He has been quoted or cited by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, USA Today, Business Insider, The New Republic, The Atlantic, Mother Jones, and The Christian Science Monitor, among others. He has also been interviewed by several radio and television stations including WKPFA in Berkeley, WBAI in New York, KJZZ in Phoenix, WBUR in Boston, WNPR in Connecticut, CUNY Television, and Bloomberg Radio.

Professor Green’s research has also been cited in numerous briefs and court cases including Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent in the affirmative action case, S.F.F.A. v. Harvard.

Moreover, Professor Green is an innovative designer of education law programs. At UConn, he developed an online school law certificate. This program covers topics in education technology, employee rights, student rights, and special education law. While at Penn State, he developed the university’s joint degree program in law and education. Professor Green also created the Law and Education Institute at Penn State, a professional development program that taught administrators and attorneys about education law.

Professor Green has received recognition for his creative scholarship and other work. In 2020, he received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Teachers College at Columbia University. Professor Green was also recognized as an RHSU Public Influence Edu-Scholar for 2023 and 2024. This list consists of 200 university-based scholars in the United States who have done the most to influence education policy.

Recent Publications:

Green, P. (2024). Critical school finance: special volume commentary. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220620.2024.2376723

Green, P., Baker, B., Eckes, S. (forthcoming). The potential for race discrimination in voucher programs in a Post-Carson world. Peabody Journal of Education.

Eckes, S., Green, P., & Mead, J. (forthcoming). Chartering religion: Examining the implications for educators’ civil rights in religious charter schools. West Education Law Reporter.

Green, P., & Eckes, S. (forthcoming). All aboard!: Making charter school boards all-purpose actors under the Supreme Court’s Amtrak case. Drake Law Review.

Baker, B., Di Carlo, M., & Green, P. (2023). Understanding the first, second, and third order effects on disparities in K-12 funding and outcomes. Poverty & Race Research Action Journal, 32(2).

Eckes, S., & Green, P. (2022). The U.S. Supreme Court paves pathway to attend publicly funded religious schools: The potential for discriminatory practices. Religion and Education. DOI: 10.1080/15507394.2022.2127629. 

Eckes, S., & Green, P. (2022). Carson v. Makin: Implications for students’ civil rights in taxpayer funded religious schools. Canopy Forum on the Interactions of Law & Religion.

Green, P., & Connery, C. (2022). Beware of educational blackmail: How can we apply lessons from environmental justice to urban charter school growth? South Carolina Law Review, 73, 643-74.

Green, P., Mead, J., & Eckes, E. (2021). Covenants to discriminate: How the anti-LGBT policies of participating voucher schools might violate the state action doctrine. University of New Hampshire Law Review, 19, 163-95.

Green, P., Baker, B., & Oluwole, J. (2021). School finance, race, and reparations. Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice, 27, 484-558.

Selected Technical Reports:

Baker, B., DiCarlo, M., & Green, P. (2022). Segregation and school funding: How housing discrimination reproduces unequal opportunity. Albert Shanker Institute.

Mead, J., & Green, P. (2019). Advancing intentional equity in charter schools. The Century Foundation. 

Selected Media References and Appearances:

Interviewed for NTN24. “Polémica por ley en el Estado de Luisiana que Exige la Exhibición de los “10 Mandamientos” en Escuelas,” June 21, 2024. 

Interviewed for USA Today. “Enrichment Only for the Rich? How School Segregation Continues to Divide Students by Income,” May 17, 2024.

Co-authored op-ed for Brookings Institution.“State Leaders Could Decide the Fate of Religious Charters.” November 7, 2023.

Interviewed for Mother Jones. “Betsy DeVos Was a Disaster. I Think Erika Donalds Could Be a Lot Worse.” August 10, 2023.

Interviewed for AP. “Charter School Lost Case over Skirts Rule for Girls, but Debate Over Charter Autonomy Isn’t Over.” June 28, 2023.

Interviewed for Education Week. “Schools Are Confronting Centuries of Racial Injustice. Will They Offer Reparations?” April 11, 2023.

Interviewed for New York Times. “Nation’s First Religious Charter School Could Be Coming to Oklahoma.” April 11, 2023.

Interviewed for Christian Science Monitor. “After High Court Ruling Is It Tremors or Earthquakes for Public Education?” June 24, 2022. 

Interviewed for CT Examiner. “UConn Prof Crunches Numbers, Pitches Plan to Fix Racial Disparities in Education.” October 23, 2021. 

Interviewed for The New Republic. “Charter Schools’ Scary Future.” September 10, 2021. 

Selected Podcasts and Lectures:

Higher Education Anti-Racist Teaching (H.E.A.R.T.) Podcast. (2023, November). Beyond affirmative action.

Have You Heard? (2023, February 2). #150 U-Turn: Charter schools go private.

Green, P. (2022, October 19). Developing a model civil rights statute in the age of school choice. Annual Barbara L. Jackson Lecture. Fordham Graduate School of Education.

Green, P. (2021, April 1). Legal status and oversight issues surrounding charter schools. Webinar conducted for the BYU Law and Education Institute and the Education Law Association.

Haimson, L. (2021, February 24). Organizing mutual aid education and school funding reparations. Talk out of school. WBAI.

Curriculum Vitae: