The MEA strongly supports Attorney General Dana Nessel’s fight to guarantee an adequate education — including the right to read — for all Michigan schoolchildren, Herbert says. (Photo: Clarence Tabb Jr., The Detroit News)
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Literacy is the gateway to exercising rights like free speech and citizenship. On a more basic level, literacy is essential to applying for a job, securing a place to live, voting and accessing our court system. In short, you have to be able to read to enjoy the unalienable constitutional rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Last month, Attorney General Dana Nessel weighed in, asking the federal 6th Circuit Court of Appeals to recognize that children have a right to an adequate education. “A minimally adequate education cannot just be a laudable goal — it must be a fundamental right,” Nessel stated.
The city of Detroit, in a brief supporting the right to read, explained the damage of not guaranteeing this basic right: “Widespread illiteracy has hampered the City’s efforts to connect Detroiters with good-paying jobs; to fill vacancies on its police force, and to grow its tax base. Illiteracy, moreover, has greatly exacerbated the effects of intergenerational poverty in Detroit.”
The same could be said about…
READ – SHARE – DISCUSS – LEARN more here – https://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2019/07/16/opinion-literacy-ought-right/1738376001/
Labor Voices
Labor Voices columns are written on a rotating basis by
United Auto Workers President Gary Jones,
Teamsters President James Hoffa,
Michigan AFL-CIO President Ron Bieber and
Michigan Education Association President Paula Herbart.
Mister Journalism: "Reading, Sharing, Discussing, Learning" 