Reading Is Fundamental. But It’s Not a Fundamental Right, Court Rules
July 2, 2018
By: Stephen Sawchuk
Source: Education Week
A federal district court has dismissed a legal challenge asserting that Michigan policymakers deprived Detroit students of a constitutional right to literacy.
The case, Gary B. v. Snyder, based its claims in the U.S. Constitution rather than in state laws—the basis of most education-equity lawsuits—arguing that students in the Detroit schools were so ill-served by Michigan policymakers that their failure to learn how to read ran afoul of their due process and equal protection rights under the 14th Amendment.
While sympathizing with the students who brought the lawsuit, Judge Stephen J. Murphy III wrote that despite the well-documented problems of vermin-filled classrooms, outdated textbooks, and dysfunctional leadership in Detroit, the U.S. Constitution doesn’t guarantee literacy.