DECEMBER 31 • 2020 | 13 pleted his undergraduate degree in pre-med at the University of Michigan, but then made a big change. “My father had been forced to leave med- ical school due to the Great Depression, ” Rosenbaum said. “I was supposed to pick up the mantle and become a doctor, but it wasn’t my passion. I heard a radical lawyer talk about what it meant to be a lawyer during the ’60s, the rule of law and how to represent activists for civil rights, and that had a profound impact on me. ” Instead of medical school, he attended Harvard Law School. When Rosenbaum arrived, he was “flabbergasted that every law student wasn’t studying to become a civil rights lawyer. ” He didn’t even realize that there were other types of law. But he knew that he was meant to fight for civil rights. After graduating from Harvard, Rosenbaum’s law career began by taking on antiwar and Vietnam War cases, which took him to Los Angeles. He worked for 40 years with the ACLU in L.A., and for more than 20 years was also teaching at U-M’s law school. Frequently commuting from L.A. to Ann Arbor was a drain, but the nature of Rosenbaum’s work allowed him to make connections with the ACLU of Detroit. Eventually, that would lead him to the “right to read” lawsuit. Although he says he’s drifted away from the formal aspects of Judaism, he was always aware of social justice and cultural traditions. “I wouldn’t say my religious upbringing formally had a huge impact on me, but I was schooled and aware of Jews playing an important role in advancing social jus- tice. And that was life-changing for me, ” Rosenbaum said. He currently works for the pro-bono legal firm Public Counsel, where he is directing attorney for the firm’s Opportunity Under Law project, which focuses on economic injustice. To Rosenbaum, returning to Michigan was significant because “being in Michigan was transformative for my life and made me a better person. I was born in Cincinnati, but my real home is Michigan. ” A DIVE INTO THE LAWSUIT Rosenbaum has been involved with many educational equality cases, such as Williams v. California, a lawsuit where he secured over $1 billion for underserved schools to buy textbooks, hire qualified teachers and pro- vide safe and sanitary school facilities. But nothing could have prepared him for what he’ d find in Detroit. Rosenbaum was informed by communi- ty and teacher groups that he’ d previously worked with about the obstacles that DPS students had been facing. These firsthand accounts of what was happening inside DPS contributed to his decision to pursue this case. Some students did not have a teacher in their classroom; temperatures in the schools ranged from below freezing to 90 degrees due to lack of proper heating/cooling equip- ment; and some students and teachers had even passed out because of the heat. What Rosenbaum saw lined up with what Hill experienced as a Detroit public schools’ student. On a typical day in class, “we’re all watch- ing a movie because there’s not a teacher available to teach us, ” Hill said. “It’s sad because it’s more so like a daycare than a school and we’re learning at a third- and fourth-grade level comprehension instead of high school work. ” It was evident to Rosenbaum that stu- dents were not being given age-appropriate instruction and were often graduating from school without knowledge of even basic reading. In 2019, the National Assessment of Educational Progress rated Detroit lowest in average reading scores compared to 26 other urban school districts. That year, only 6% of students in Detroit public schools performed at or above the NAEP’s “Proficient” level in reading. And if students don’t learn literacy in school, they often never will. A 2011 report found that 47% of adults in Detroit were functionally illiterate. “I never met a student who had a book to take home. The books that they had in a classroom were older than they were, and most had been obtained by teachers at garage sales or through donor websites, ” Rosenbaum said, contrasting the conditions at DPS with those of the school districts in nearby, wealthier communities. “For any of us to be aware of those sorts of injustices while children in Bloomfield Hills and Ann Arbor are on campuses that could double for college campuses is not right. ” Rosenbaum decided to take on the issue and truly find the root of the problem. He met with DPS teachers and had them speak to some of the students and par- ents about joining his lawsuit. He also had reached out to organizations in the commu- nity that worked with the same kids. “I think the families wanted to make sure that their children did better than they did. I don’t think for those of us who are privileged, that we really understand what strength it takes to say, ‘I can’t read, ’ or ‘I can’t do basic math, ’” Rosenbaum said. “I had one young man that was a senior continued on page 14 Members of the Detroit Literacy Group outside of Osborn High School: Andrea Jackson, counselor and parent; Jamarria Hill, Osborn graduate; Mark Rosenbaum, director of the Public Counsel law firm’s Opportunity Under Law project; Michael Kelley, law partner at Sidley Austin LLP. DETROIT LITERACY GROUP DETROIT LITERACY GROUP