Opinion ID: 4528343
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Conditions Alleged in Plaintiffs’ Schools

Text: Plaintiffs’ schools are “five of the lowest performing schools in Detroit.” (Id. at #5.) Three of them are traditional public high schools: Osborn Academy of Mathematics (“Osborn MST”), the Osborn Evergreen Academy of Design and Alternative Energy (“Osborn Evergreen”), and the Medicine and Community Health Academy at Cody (“Cody Health”). The other two are charter schools: Hamilton Academy (“Hamilton”), which was an elementary school, and Experiencia Preparatory Academy (“Experiencia”), which taught students at the elementary through high-school levels.4 The core of Plaintiffs’ complaint is that the conditions in their schools are so bad—due to the absence of qualified teachers, crumbling facilities, and insufficient materials—that those schools fail to provide access to literacy. “Plaintiffs sit in classrooms where not even the pretense of education takes place, in schools that are functionally incapable of delivering access to literacy.” (Id. at #4.) Because of this, Plaintiffs attend “schools in name only, characterized by slum-like conditions and lacking the most basic educational opportunities that children elsewhere in Michigan and throughout the nation take for granted.” (Id.) “[T]hey wholly lack the capacity to deliver basic access to literacy, functionally delivering no education at all.” (Id. at #19; see also id. at # 10–11 (“The schools Plaintiffs attend, and attended, are not truly schools by any traditional definition or understanding of the role public schools play in affording access to literacy.”).) 4 These charter schools are treated as public schools under Michigan law and are subject to the authority of the state board of education. E.g., Mich. Comp. Laws § 380.501(1); Parochiaid, 566 N.W.2d at 215–21. Nos. 18-1855/1871 Gary B., et al. v. Whitmer, et al. Page 8 As noted above, the inadequacies that Plaintiffs point to can be grouped into three main categories: teaching, facilities, and materials. We discuss examples of each of these problems below.
With respect to teaching, Plaintiffs claim that their schools “lack the qualified teaching staff required to bring students to literacy—that is, teachers who are certificated, properly trained, and assigned to a class within the area of their qualifications and expertise.” (Id. at #15.) This shortfall can be seen in the schools’ substantial reliance on Teach for America instructors and through other sources of high teacher turnover, which in many cases lead to midyear vacancies. “In the 2016–2017 school year, there were up to 200 vacancies [in Detroit’s public schools] just before the start of the school year.” (Id. at #102.) There are also substantial shortterm absences, with some teachers “absent as many as 50 days in one year.” (Id. at #105.) Because of these shortages, Plaintiffs’ “classes are covered by non-certificated paraprofessionals, substitutes, or misassigned teachers who lack any expertise or knowledge in the subject-matter of the course.” (Id. at #15–16.) Other times, classes are combined on short notice, with up to sixty students in a single classroom. In perhaps the most notable case, “an eighth grade student was put in charge of teaching seventh and eighth grade math classes for a month because no math teacher was available.” (Id. at #16.) When there are teachers, they also often lack meaningful experience. For example, at Hamilton, a majority of teachers were starting their first year when the complaint was filed. At Experiencia, about half of the teachers who started in 2012 quit by the end of their second semester. In June 2016, the state adopted legislation “permitting non-certificated instructors to teach in DPSCD schools. This legislation does not apply to any school elsewhere in the State.” (Id. at #16.) At Hamilton, a paraprofessional who was teaching middle school science said “she does not understand the material and cannot lead classroom experiments.” (Id. at #102–03.) Nos. 18-1855/1871 Gary B., et al. v. Whitmer, et al. Page 9 In several other cases, long-term substitutes are used, or teachers are changed frequently through the year. Beyond the teachers themselves, Plaintiffs also complain of their schools’ failure to use adequate curricula that could plausibly impart literacy. According to Plaintiffs, “[t]here is no consistent literacy instruction program in Plaintiffs’ elementary schools, and the schools lack the staffing and capacity required to effectively implement such a program.” (Id. at #76.) At Experiencia, “teachers dedicated significant class time to reading aloud from books with reading levels multiple grades below the chronological age of the class, yet students struggled to sound out simple words.” (Id. at #77–78.) Plaintiffs’ high schools fare little better, as teachers receive no support or training in literacy education and “lack access to curricular materials such as lesson plans, pacing guides, and teacher editions of textbooks.” (Id. at #77.) One of Plaintiffs’ high schools attempted to address literacy issues with school reading groups; despite being a high school, “[t]he most advanced of the reading groups read books at a fourth- and fifthgrade reading level.” (Id.) The problem is also exacerbated as the students advance in grade, since higher-grade teachers “lack appropriate training to support students who are performing far below grade level.” (Id. at #79–80.)5
Turning to the schools themselves, Plaintiffs allege that their classrooms feature decrepit or even unsafe physical conditions, meaning they “have been unable to satisfy minimal state health and safety standards.” (Id. at #12.) “The City of Detroit admitted that during the 2015–16 academic year, none of the school district’s buildings were in compliance with city health and safety codes,” and that some of Plaintiffs’ schools were still not in compliance at the time the complaint was filed. (Id. at #87.) Taken together, Plaintiffs claim that these conditions “make learning nearly impossible.” (Id. at #12.) “Classroom temperatures in Plaintiffs’ schools regularly exceed 90 degrees during both the summer and winter due to malfunctioning furnaces and, at other times during winter, are 5 Plaintiffs also allege that their schools fail to employ adequate instructors for students whose first language is not English. In one case, this failure was despite the school claiming to be “a dual language immersion school.” (Compl., R. 1 at PageID #99.) Nos. 18-1855/1871 Gary B., et al. v. Whitmer, et al. Page 10 frequently so cold that students and their teachers can see their breath and must wear layers of winter clothing indoors.” (Id.) These temperatures sometimes require school closings or early dismissals. For example, “there is no air conditioning at Hamilton, and one west-facing classroom has reached 110 degrees during the school year. . . . On the first day of the 2016–17 school year, the temperatures in the school grew so extreme that multiple students fainted, both students and teachers got so sick they threw up, and multiple teachers developed heat rashes.” (Id. at #90.) During the winter months, Plaintiffs face extreme cold instead: “students and teachers had to wear winter coats, hats, and scarves” inside their classrooms. (Id.) In some cases, temperatures remained below freezing, “and students were periodically sent home when the classrooms were too cold.” (Id. at #91.) “Mice, cockroaches, and other vermin regularly inhabit Plaintiffs’ classrooms, and the first thing some teachers do each morning is attempt to clean up rodent feces before their students arrive. Hallways and classrooms smell of dead vermin and black mold . . . .” (Id. at #13.) “Students and teachers have frequently encountered mice, mice droppings, rats, bedbugs, and/or cockroaches.” (Id. at #88; see also id. at #88–89 (including additional allegations and pictures).) “The drinking water in some of Plaintiffs’ schools is hot, contaminated and undrinkable. Bathrooms are filthy and unkempt; sinks do not work; toilet stalls lack doors and toilet paper. In some classrooms, ceiling tiles and plaster regularly fall during class time.” (Id. at #13.) At several of Plaintiffs’ schools, pipes or roofs leaked as well, and broken windows are covered with cardboard. (See id. at #95, #97 (pictures of damaged facilities).) Plaintiffs also complain of overcrowding within their classrooms, with as many as fifty students in a single classroom and insufficient desks and chairs, requiring students to stand or sit on the floor. Even when students have chairs, “classes are often so full that the desks are crammed wall-to-wall, with no room for aisles.” (Id. at #97.)
Plaintiffs allege that their schools lack the books and materials needed to plausibly provide literacy. “Many classes in Plaintiffs’ schools do not have appropriate textbooks. Nos. 18-1855/1871 Gary B., et al. v. Whitmer, et al. Page 11 Where they are provided, they are often long out of date, torn and beyond repair, or marked up to be unreadable in places.” (Id. at #11; see also id. at #84–85 (pictures of Plaintiffs’ textbooks).) Plaintiffs also allege there were so few copies that they had to share a single book among four or more students during class, and could not take them home after school, meaning their teachers could not assign meaningful homework. In several cases, the schools’ libraries were inaccessible or had no books available either, even outside of textbooks. In addition to their allegations of outdated, insufficient, or damaged books, Plaintiffs also claim that their schoolbooks were not appropriate to their grade level. For example, “the only books in the third-grade classroom at Hamilton were picture books, until the teacher purchased others with her own money more than halfway through the year.” (Id. at #8.) “There are no textbooks for the Earth Science, Physics, or Research and Development science classes at Osborn MST, so the teachers in each of those classes rely on a section of the Biology textbook most closely related to the subject they are teaching.” (Id. at #83.) Beyond books, Plaintiffs also claim that their classrooms lack other basic school supplies, such as pens, pencils, and paper. Teachers attempt to make up for this shortfall by spending substantial amounts out of pocket or by requesting donations online. C. Educational Outcomes from Plaintiffs’ Schools According to Plaintiffs, the school conditions discussed above led to abysmal educational outcomes, which further supports the claim that their schools cannot provide access to literacy. Turning to outcome data, Plaintiffs contend that while outcomes are not dispositive of access, they remain relevant because aggregate results shed light on the degree of opportunity afforded to students. “Achievement data reveal that in Plaintiffs’ schools, illiteracy is the norm. The proficiency rates in Plaintiffs’ schools hover near zero in nearly all subject areas.” (Id. at #7 (emphasis omitted); see also id. at #62 (“[L]iteracy instruction provided in Plaintiffs’ schools is so wholly insufficient that ninety percent or more of the students are unable to meet state proficiency standards.”).) And looking beyond Michigan, Detroit’s schools “ranked last in reading and math proficiency among all big-city school districts.” (Id. at #47.) Nos. 18-1855/1871 Gary B., et al. v. Whitmer, et al. Page 12 The numbers from Plaintiffs’ individual schools demonstrate significant underperformance compared to state educational standards. Looking first to elementary school students, at Hamilton, just 4.2% of third-graders scored “proficient or above” in the state’s English assessment, compared to 46.0% of third-graders statewide. (Id. at #8.) Similarly, at Experiencia, only 9.5% of third-graders scored as proficient. Other grade levels have even worse numbers, including zero or near-zero proficiency rates. Turning to Plaintiffs’ high schools, at Cody MCH, 12.5% of eleventh-graders scored as proficient in English, compared to 49.2% statewide. And at Osborn MST, only 1.8% of eleventh-graders were proficient. In other subject areas, proficiency numbers were even lower. Additionally, results from the ACT college-admissions test reveal that students in Plaintiffs’ schools dramatically underperform the rest of the state, with between 12.5% and 0% achieving “college ready” scores. (Id. at #71–72.) Plaintiffs argue that these data translate into significantly reduced literacy skills in their schools, in which students “struggle to write proper paragraphs or even complete sentences.” (Id. at #7.) For example, in their elementary schools, Plaintiffs allege that many third-grade students have a vocabulary of only “a couple hundred words,” are still learning handwriting, and that some “cannot even sound out letters.” (Id. at #8; accord id. at #77–79.) These issues persisted at Plaintiffs’ high schools as well: At Cody MCH, the ninth-grade English-Language Arts teacher spent a good part of the year reading, paragraph by paragraph, a novel with a third-grade reading level, because no more lexically advanced novel would have been readable by his students. When the class was asked to read the book aloud in class, a number of students experienced enormous difficulty reading monosyllabic words. Similarly, at Experiencia, the ninth and tenth grade class was assigned a book with a fourthgrade reading level, because the students lacked the literacy skills to access more complex texts and because they were the only books available. At Osborn MST, . . . [a] number of the students struggled to sound out basic words when they read aloud in class, and one student asked her classmate how to spell the word “the.” (Id. at #9–10; accord id. at #79.) Nos. 18-1855/1871 Gary B., et al. v. Whitmer, et al. Page 13 Looking to national-level data, Detroit schools average “2.3 grade levels below their actual grade level in basic reading proficiency. Because Plaintiffs’ schools are among the poorest performing schools in Detroit, this means that students in Plaintiffs’ schools are performing far lower.” (Id. at #72 (emphasis omitted).) Plaintiffs allege that these issues also cause “high drop-out and low college attainment rates” within their schools. (Id. at # 27; accord id. at #73–76.) While literacy is the crux of Plaintiffs’ complaint, they also note that the failure of their schools is uniform across “nearly all subject areas.” (Id. at #7.) “[B]ecause the rest of the curriculum assumes a level of literacy that the students do not attain, they are also unable to learn State-mandated content in all other subject areas.” (Id. at #7–8.) Of Plaintiffs’ high schools that remain open, each of their eleventh-grade classes scored “0% proficiency in at least one of Math, Science, or Social Studies.” (Id. at #10 (emphasis omitted).) D. The District Court’s Opinion and Order On September 13, 2016, Plaintiffs filed their complaint in the Eastern District of Michigan. They alleged three causes of action at issue in this appeal: (1) denial of their “fundamental right of access to literacy,” violating both the substantive due process and equal protection requirements of the Fourteenth Amendment; (2) violation of the Equal Protection Clause due to race-based discrimination; and (3) a claim for declaratory relief based on these other causes of action. (Compl., R. 1 at PageID #126–30.)6 Defendants moved to dismiss. First, while not expressly phrased in terms of mootness, Defendants argued that they no longer control Plaintiffs’ schools, and so cannot be sued for those schools’ conditions. Defendants also claimed that the Eleventh Amendment barred Plaintiffs’ requested relief on sovereign-immunity grounds. Turning to the merits, Defendants argued that there is no fundamental right to access to literacy, calling it “a mere proxy for a right to education, which has long been rejected as a fundamental right.” (Mot. to Dismiss, R. 60 at PageID #519–27.) And since there is no such 6 Plaintiffs voluntarily abandoned their other two causes of action. Nos. 18-1855/1871 Gary B., et al. v. Whitmer, et al. Page 14 right, any equal protection claim not based on a protected class must be reviewed under the rational-basis standard, a review that Defendants argued would show that the claim fails under the Supreme Court’s prior education cases. Finally, Defendants said that Plaintiffs failed to plead a race-based equal protection claim because the conditions they complain of “equally affect all students within the same schools regardless of race.” (Id. at #532–35.) While the district court ultimately granted Defendants’ motion, Gary B., 329 F. Supp. 3d at 369, how it came to that conclusion is important on appeal. Before reaching the merits of Plaintiffs’ complaint, the district court first addressed Defendants’ argument that they did not operate Plaintiffs’ schools and so were the wrong parties to sue. Id. at 349. The court rejected this view, finding that Plaintiffs had “adequately pled that state actors effectively control the schools, at least in part, and are therefore proper parties.” Id. at 354. The court also rejected Defendants’ Eleventh Amendment argument, finding that Plaintiffs sought prospective injunctive relief, and therefore could sue state officers in their official capacities. Id. at 356–57. Plaintiffs fared worse on the merits. Turning first to their due process claims, the court noted that “a case like this one could be argued on either positive- or negative-right theories.” Id. at 364. Negative rights, in this view, are freedoms from government intervention or intrusion; positive rights, by contrast, entail affirmative obligations that the state must afford its citizens. “But the relief sought [was] exclusively positive in nature,” and so the district court only considered the due process claim in terms of whether access to literacy is a fundamental right. Id. at 364–65. And on that point, noting federal courts’ “reticence to find positive rights [even] to unquestionably important necessities of life,” the court held there was no such fundamental right. Id. at 365–66. On the equal protection claim, the court first found that while Plaintiffs attempted to compare their education to that provided by other schools throughout the State of Michigan, this was not the right comparison. Id. at 367. According to the court, because schools like Plaintiffs’—those under emergency management or experiencing other state interventions—were in a different position from other schools, only schools undergoing state interventions could serve as comparators in assessing their equal protection claims. Id. Using that framework, the district court rejected Plaintiffs’ race-based equal protection claim, finding that the complaint Nos. 18-1855/1871 Gary B., et al. v. Whitmer, et al. Page 15 failed to allege “any instance where Defendants intervened in a school with a different racial makeup and treated that school disparately.” Id. at 367–68. Left with only rational basis review, the court found that Plaintiffs had failed to allege any specific, irrational actions taken by Defendants, holding that Plaintiffs could not use the conditions in their schools alone to dispel the presumption of rationality. Id. at 368. Accordingly, the district court dismissed Plaintiffs’ complaint in its entirety with prejudice. Id. at 369. E. The Parties’ Arguments on Appeal On appeal, both sides argue that the district court erred (though Defendants of course believe the ultimate outcome was correct). Plaintiffs say that the court was wrong in finding there is no fundamental right to access to literacy, and thus the district court should not have dismissed their due process claim. They also argue that the court should have considered a negative-rights version of their due process theory, under which Defendants violated their right to liberty by compelling them to attend “schools in name only” that fail to provide even a minimal education. (Pls.’ Br. at 36–43.) On equal protection, while not addressing their race-based claims, Plaintiffs say that because Defendants control the entire statewide education system, other schools throughout the state are proper comparators. When viewed against these statewide comparators, Plaintiffs say their schools are so much worse that Defendants’ actions violate the Equal Protection Clause under any level of scrutiny. For Defendants’ part, they begin by reiterating that they do not control Plaintiffs’ schools, and so are not proper defendants in this case. They now raise this argument under the guise of mootness, contending that changes in state law and practice have removed their day-to-day control over education in Detroit. As a result, they also argue that any remaining claims are for retroactive rather than prospective relief, and so are barred by the Eleventh Amendment. Following this section of their brief, which was styled “Argument for All Defendants” (Defs.’ Br. at 26), Defendants seem to part ways. Most of the defendants say that because Plaintiffs’ claims are moot, they will not argue against their merits on appeal. (Id. at 25.) But two of the defendants proceed in a further section titled “Argument of Michigan Board of Nos. 18-1855/1871 Gary B., et al. v. Whitmer, et al. Page 16 Education Members Tom McMillin and Nikki Snyder Only.” (Id. at 36; accord id. at 25.) This section contains Defendants’ arguments on the merits of Plaintiffs’ constitutional theories, in which they say the district court correctly dismissed Plaintiffs’ claims.7 These issues are now before the Court.