Tuition charge for extra class brings lawsuit in Ann Arbor

Two students and their parents have sued the Ann Arbor (Mich.) school district in an effort to stop it from charging tuition for so-called "seventh-hour" classes. AnnArbor.com says the district has decided to impose a $100-a-semester fee on high school students taking a seventh class in 2013-14. The board approved the fee as it tried to eliminate an $8.7 million budget deficit. The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan filed the lawsuit on behalf of Paloma Paez-Coombe, a 16-year-old junior at Pioneer High School, and Elliot Polot, a 17-year-old senior at Pioneer. The suit contends that nearly half of the students at Pioneer and Huron high schools need to take seventh-hour classes to obtain enough credits to graduate, while also participating in music, art, foreign language, advanced placement courses and alternative career programs.