Dive Brief:
- The Michigan Court of Appeals shot down a lawsuit alleging that the Highland Park School District was in violation of the Michigan Constitution by failing to provide an adequate education for its students.
- The suit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, and it blamed both the district and the state for the students' struggle to read. As evidence, the suit used the district's test scores, which found 65% of Highland Park 4th graders tested below proficient on reading and 87% tested below proficient on math.
- In a 2-1 opinion, the judges wrote that the issue was not one for the courts but rather a problem that needed to be resolved between individual students and their local school district.
Dive Insight:
A Wayne County Judge initially ruled that the case, which centers around eight students, would go to trial. However, the state appealed this decision.
Interestingly, when the appeals court dismissed the allegations against the state and school district defendants, it did not mention the Leona Group LLC, the massive, for-profit Education Management Organization (EMO) currently running all of the Highland Park public schools.