The coronavirus pandemic is laying bare pervasive inequities in our society — and from housing to healthcare to jobs, low-income communities and communities of color are experiencing the brunt of the pain. The pandemic also is exposing huge disparities in access to educational opportunity while schools are closed, between children who live in stable housing with high-speed internet, devices for online learning, and access to well-supported teachers and enrichment activities, and children with none of these privileges.

As the Governor of Michigan is ably addressing the health crisis in her state, we hope that she will choose to address an education crisis that has plagued Detroit for decades by accepting the recent decision from a federal appeals court recognizing the right of Detroit Public School students to literacy and equal educational opportunity. To be sure, Detroit’s students need and deserve leadership that boldly rights historical wrongs and that ensures a bright future for all students by insisting that every child in Detroit — and indeed, across Michigan — deserves an equitable and excellent education.