An Oakland County judge ruled in a case against the Rochester Community Schools that public school teachers aren’t covered by the state’s disclosure laws. It’s an absurd determination that, if allowed to stand, has the potential to shield vast amounts of public information from view.

Oakland Circuit Judge Jacob James Cunningham rejected a Freedom of Information Act suit earlier this month filed on behalf of parent Carol Beth Litkouhi, who was seeking materials related to a gender studies class, including reading assignments.

Cunningham ruled Michigan’s FOIA law only covers school districts as a public body, and not its individual non-executive employees.

The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation went to court on behalf of Litkouhi, and says it will appeal the decision.

While it only applies to the Rochester case, the Mackinac Center warns the case could be used to hide information held by other government workers, including police officers. It also expressed concern government entities could keep secret what should be public information simply by leaving the reports, documents, etc. in the hands of lower-level workers.

The ruling is a subversion of the Freedom of Information Act, the most effective tool citizens have for obtaining information critical to watchdogging the workings of their government.

It is particularly egregious in the message it sends to parents of public school students: They have no right to know exactly what their children are being taught.

That’s become a popular position of the education establishment as it seeks to avoid parental resistance to progressive curriculums. Parents in Michigan have increasingly requested details of courses, particularly on history, gender and race.

And they should have them. The laws governing public education should start with the fact that minor children belong to and are the responsibility of their parents. Nothing that happens to children in a public school should be held in secret from parents.

The larger issue here, however, is the disregard the ruling shows for the public’s right to know. Employees on the public payroll are not independent agents. Their work belongs to the people who pay their salaries — the taxpayers.

To pretend citizens don’t have the right to know how public employees are carrying out the duties they pay them to perform is insulting.

Rochester schools argued teachers are not covered by FOIA because they are not members of the administration, “but instead are employees and members of a bargaining unit represented by the Michigan Education Association, and therefore not members of a public body.”

Cunningham agreed with the argument that FOIA only applies to public bodies, and not the individuals who make up those bodies.

Curiously, the ruling quotes from the Freedom of Information Act, which state citizens “are entitled to full and complete information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts of those who represent them as officials and public employees.” If teachers aren’t public employees, what are they?

The judge employed legal pretzelry to conclude the law was never intended to cover employees of a school district such as teachers because it does not specifically mention them.

The ruling is a dangerous narrowing of the disclosure law that we trust will be remedied when this case gets to a higher court.

— Detroit News