A report finds the nation’s most segregated school district border sits between Detroit and the Grosse Pointes.
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Lawsuit is part of growing trend of litigation aimed at failing schools.
Because it’s a federal case, it could reach the U.S. Supreme Court and have nationwide impact.Everyone knows that literacy is important, but is it a right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution?
That’s the question being raised in a lawsuit filed against the State of Michigan on behalf of Detroit schoolchildren who struggle in some of the state’s worst-performing schools. Advocates insist that it is, saying that people who can’t read can’t exercise other constitutional rights such as voting, accessing the courts and serving in the military.
To argue the case, they have assembled a nationwide legal team that includes Carter Phillips, a Washington lawyer who has argued more than 80 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, and Erwin Chemerinsky, one of the nation’s most frequently cited experts on the Constitution.
Related: Madison’s long term, disastrous reading results.