The Michigan Supreme Court says schools cannot sue the state for underfunding K-through-12 education without showing how much money they’re being short-changed.
450 school districts across Michigan filed the lawsuit. They say the Legislature imposed expensive new data collection and reporting requirements on districts without fully paying for them. That would violate the Headlee Amendment to the state constitution which outlaws unfunded mandates.
But the Michigan Supreme Court said school districts have to be able to show how much money they’re losing in the arrangement – that it’s not enough to make the case that the process for determining their costs just isn’t very good. The districts could ask the court to reconsider the decision.
