Michigan Court Rules That State Has No Obligation To Provide Children With Education

[Wella]

1. The broker cities get, the more we will see these kinds of rulings

The 2008 Wall Street bubble/crash destroyed many municipalities. There are towns in California (ground zero for the housing bubble) that are trying desperately to get out of pension obligations and other public services because they literally can't afford it.

"The appellate court said the state has no constitutional requirement to ensure schoolchildren actually learn fundamental skills such as reading — but rather is obligated only to establish and finance a public education system, regardless of quality. "

This ruling does not say that there is no obligation for an education system to exist: there clearly is. What the ruling says is that there is no quality metric that the system legally has to meet. A lot depends on what the decision defines as "required." If a ruling allows a school district to have dangerous school buildings, bad plumbing, unqualified teachers, etc., then this decision is an outrage. However, if the ruling is merely saying that the school district can be released from its obligation to provide expensive "extras", such as high-priced computer equipment, sports programs, etc., then maybe it's not such a bad thing to give this municipality some room to breathe.