Federal Judge rules "No fundamental right to literacy"

[popeyespappy]

I doubt funding for the Detroit city school system is the biggest problem here. According to this article in the Detroit News, the Detroit public school system is budgeted for $732,000,000 for the 2018-19 school year for an estimated 50,875 students. That's $14,388 per student for the year. That's not a bad budget considering Detroit is broke. It’s a lot better than a lot of other school systems that do more with less.

The Detroit Public Schools have been under the direct authority of the State of Michigan for 11 of the past 15 years, and remain so today.  During this period, the State’s disinvestment and deliberate indifference has contributed to a precipitous decline in the school system that has left the approximately 100,000 children of Detroit, overwhelmingly low-income students of color, without the ability to meet their basic educational needs.  Although aware of the State’s failure to educate children, the State has taken no effective steps to remedy the massive educational deprivation.

Gary B. v. Snyder

I didn't say they didn't have a funding problem. I said I doubted funding was the biggest problem. Having said that what would you do with additional funds to improve these inner city schools? This whole suite wasn't about a right to literacy. It was about getting more money for the schools. OK, how is getting more money for a school system that is already better funded, despite what detroit-accesstoliteracy.org may claim, than many systems that do better with less going to help? The article I linked earlier sited crumbling infrastructure as a problem. How is new paint on the walls going to help these kids?

The article also said they were short 200 teachers, and having a hard time filling those positions. Higher pay might help to get more teachers, but with a median income of $57,106 teachers in Detroit already earn more than twice the $26,095 median income of the average city resident. Higher salaries aren't going to help much when most teachers simply don't want to work in inner city Detroit schools.