Education

The state of Michigan early Thursday announced a settlement in a lawsuit over poor reading skills that was filed on behalf of Detroit schoolchildren, weeks after a federal appeals court issued a groundbreaking decision recognizing a constitutional right to education and literacy.

The 2016 lawsuit that the appeals court had sent back to a federal judge in Detroit alleged that the city’s public schools were in “slum-like conditions” and “functionally incapable of delivering access to literacy.”

A judge dismissed criminal charges Wednesday against former Michigan State University President Lou Anna Simon, who was accused of lying to investigators in 2018 as they tried to learn what she knew years earlier about sexual assault complaints involving Larry Nassar.

Simon last year was ordered to trial in Eaton County, near Lansing. But Circuit Judge John Maurer tossed the case, saying a lower court judge had abused her discretion in finding enough evidence to keep the case going.

A lawmaker warned Tuesday of a potential 25% cut in state funding for K-12 schools because of economic fallout from the pandemic, saying he is not “banking” on Congress sending additional aid to states or giving flexibility to use previously passed rescue money.

The Michigan Legislature is asking a federal appeals court to set aside a groundbreaking decision that recognized a constitutional right to education and literacy in Detroit schools.

The House and Senate are controlled by Republicans, who said managing K-12 education is a job for state and local officials, not the federal judiciary. Lawmakers are asking the full 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reopen the case and start over.

University of Michigan officials say the school hopes to settle lawsuits brought by hundreds of people who say they were sexually abused by a sports doctor who worked for the university for decades. Board of Regents Chair Ron Weiser and school President Mark Schlissel say in a Tuesday that the university wants to work with lawyers for of victims who say they were abused by Dr. Robert Anderson. He died in 2008. Attorney Mike Cox says he thinks the university is trying to avoid public and court scrutiny for what it did to these survivors by settling out of court.

A federal appeals court has ruled that students at underperforming Detroit public schools have a constitutional right to literacy. Thursday's ruling by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati follows a lower court's dismissal of a 2016 lawsuit filed against state officials on behalf of some students. The appeals court wrote that a basic minimum education should be recognized as a fundamental right. It sent the lawsuit back to the lower court. The lawsuit claimed schools were in "slum-like conditions" and "functionally incapable of delivering access to literacy." Democratic Gov.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has extended Michigan's stay-at-home order through April, saying it must continue longer to combat the coronavirus pandemic. The order took effect March 24 and had been scheduled to expire early next week. The order prohibits employers from requiring workers to leave their homes unless necessary to protect life or conduct minimum basic operations. It also bars gatherings of any number outside a single household, except to care for a family member, though places of religious worship are exempt from misdemeanor penalties.