Why?

Well, actually, why not was the better question it turns out. I've been wanting to write this resource for years, but fear kept providing me reasons why not. Finally, I just got tired of the fear ... and started writing. 

The more formal answer: 

This is a long-tail book. My academic grandfather, Kern Alexander, wrote this book. At last check, it was $181.00 on Amazon. My academic mother, Martha McCarthy, wrote this book. It was $66.52. Seems only reasonable I should write one with a price of $0.00, right?

Kern's book is designed mostly for law students and experts - the upper eschelon guardians of the education system's legal backbone - of which Kern himself was one. Martha's book, and life's work, brought education law to the high level practitioners all across the United States. The school system operators like superintendents, principals, union reps, and others. These are the people that most impact the legal element of the education system, and those that most need this critical information. In a world of scare knowledge and high publishing costs, limiting the resource to those groups makes a lot of sense. If you are one of those people, then this is probably not the right resource for you, and my advice is to spend the money and get one of those. 

However, if you are not a guardian or an operator, but rather an everyday practitioner, then you probably found the right place. The constraints of Kern and Martha's day are not my constraints and their task is not my task. Thus, it is time to write a school law resource for the long tail. Those 98 or so percent of people who only rarely deal with a formal element of education law, but who nonetheless collectively constitute the vast majority of practitioners. For that 98 percent, it just simply does not make sense to pay half a day's wage to publishers to access such information for their limited needs. For them, it needs to be free. And, readily available. And, searchable. And organized such that they can get to exactly the information they need, and only that information, and be on their way within minutes. Back to their lives and their work of improving the lives of the learners they affect.

I think I am the right person for that job. My academic lineage demands I write a textbook at some point and my own research and work around technology (and web building) positions me at an intersection I think no one else in the country inhabits. It is the lessons of my predecessors in the format of my contemporaries. Thus, this is my task. I have avoided it long enough.  

So, for you dear reader, this is my gift. No strings attached. Enjoy.