I'm torn on this. I think cursive is good to teach in school even if it's not considered practical anymore. It's now more of an art than anything else (and we teach art in school). At the same time, I don't see how this is the legislature's business. Isn't there a school board (hopefully comprised of educators) to make decisions like this?
It's taught because it is supposed to be a practical ability, but it no longer is. As for the art aspect, I'd wager there are more applicable forms of "practical" art that could be taught. Things like graphic design could begin being taught at the same age that cursive is. I agree with MrSandman's comment above: We could put so many more useful features in our education system at this point and we have people deciding to refocus on something that I believe is widely seen as the single most useless part of elementary school