A federal appeals court has issued a watershed ruling that should be viewed as both common sense and a moral imperative: The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals says children have a constitutional right to an adequate education. The ruling could ultimately provide an important new lever for public education reform across America — if it survives further appeal, which it must.
To those who fret that such a development might require cash-strapped local governments to provide Cadillac educational amenities, no need to worry: The ruling doesn’t establish a right to equal opportunity for students in poor and rich districts, reasonable as that sounds. It merely holds that students in poor districts must at least be enabled to read and not be warehoused in facilities where rats and cockroaches roam the halls and students end up having to teach classes because of understaffing.