US state sued for its ‘illiterate’ students

The American Civil Liberties Union has sued the state of Michigan and a local school district for failing to properly educate the the district’s young students.

The class-action law suit – the first of its kind – alleges that hundreds of students from the Detroit-area district are functionally illiterate and not reading well enough for their age.

The school district has yet to respond to the legal action. Already facing an $11 million budget deficit, it may not be able to remedy the problem anytime soon.

Al Jazeera’s Scott Heidler reports.