Detroit Students Have a Constitutional Right to Literacy, Court Rules.
A major ruling in a lawsuit involving the Detroit public schools comes at a time when school shutdowns are expected to affect poor children most adversely.
For the first time in decades, a federal court has declared that American public school students have a constitutional right to an adequate education.
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that the state of Michigan has been so negligent toward the educational needs of Detroit students that children have been “deprived of access to literacy” — the foundational skill that allows Americans to function as citizens — in violation of the 14th Amendment.
The ruling came in response to a class-action lawsuit filed by a group of Detroit public school students that cited a litany of severe deficiencies: Rodent-infested schools. Unqualified and absentee teachers. Physics classes given only biology textbooks to work with. “Advanced” high school reading groups working at the fourth-grade level.
When “a group of children is relegated to a school system that does not provide even a plausible chance to attain literacy, we hold that the Constitution provides them with a remedy,” wrote Judge Eric L. Clay for a 2-1 majority.
The overwhelming majority of students in the Detroit public schools are black or Hispanic and come from low-income families. Judge Clay noted that through the nation’s history, white people have repeatedly withheld education in order to deny political power to African-Americans and others, most notably under slavery and segregation. . .
Jamarria Hall, 20, one of the plaintiffs, said the ruling confirmed what he had always suspected about his Detroit public high school — that it did not provide students with a good education. Although he graduated at the top of his high school class, Mr. Hall struggled at the community college he attended and was put on academic probation. He is now working with a tutor to improve his skills.
He wants the next generation of Detroit children “to have a chance,” he said. “This is our future. These are our voters.”'>>>
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/27/us/detroit-literacy-lawsuit-schools.html?
'Judge Clay noted that through the nation’s history, white people have repeatedly withheld education in order to deny political power to African-Americans and others, most notably under slavery and segregation.'
Good/great he said it. 
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