Arizona Republicans seek to overturn ruling on changes to English Language Learning programs
Lawyers for Republican legislative leaders in Arizona are asking the 9th U.S. Circuit of Appeals to overturn a trial judge's ruling last March that changes made to Arizona's English Language Learning programs and funding don't satisfy a 1974 federal mandate for equal educational opportunities for English-learning students. The appeal cites changes made under a 2006 law that set the state on a course to require districts to pick and choose among a menu of state-drafted instruction models and get supplemental state funds depending on the district's costs. A key issue in arguments scheduled Dec. 4 by the San Francisco-based appellate court is whether a since-retired judge's 2000 ruling that Arizona's programs and funding were inadequate still is valid in the wake of the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) school accountability law and other developments that changed the education landscape in Arizona since 2000. Also being contested is whether the case applies statewide or only to conditions in Nogales, a southern Arizona border town whose school district was the basis for the 1992 class-action lawsuit. If the appeal is denied, the state could face contempt-of-court fines if it doesn't substantially increase state funding for ELL programs at a cost that some have estimated could exceed $200 million annually. The March 4 deadline falls about only seven weeks into the 2008 legislative session, and lawmakers would be hard-pressed to resolve the issue that quickly, particularly in the face of a developing budget deficit. A ruling the other way would allow full implementation of the 2006 law and allow lawmakers to step back from an issue that's bedeviled them for years. It's not yet known how much its changes will cost because those will vary by school district.
Though the case is now 15 years old, the starting point for the current appeal is U.S. District Judge Raner C. Collins' March 22 ruling that the 2006 law still doesn't provide adequate funding and violates federal law in several respects. The legislature missed a deadline that Judge Collins set for action by the end of the 2007 legislative session last June, prompting an order on Oct. 11 threatening to impose sanctions if the state fails to adequately fund the programs by March 4. The state’s appeal argues that Nogales has improved its ELL programs and the state has increased its funding for districts' ELL programs, instituted standards, and provided districts with coaching assistance and monitoring of their performance. However, an underlying issue is that Judge Collins has missed the fundamental point that federal courts' previous approach for enforcing the 1974 mandate with a cost-study approach is obsolete with the enactment of NCLB, the appeal said. The 2006 state law will tailor funding to districts according to their specific needs, not by a blanket funding increase, the appeal stated. Lawyers for the plaintiffs said the state's funding system remains arbitrary and capricious, bearing no relation to actual funding needed so ELL students can master academic standards. NCLB didn't erase the state's duty to fund ELL programs without violating federal law by requiring districts to lose state dollars by the amount of the their federal funding, the plaintiffs' lawyers argued.
Fox11AZ.com By Associated Press
[Editor’s Note: The March 22 ruling by the district court in the case, Flores v. Arizona, is below. The district court made that finding after the Ninth Circuit in August 2006 had vacated an earlier order by the district court and remanded the case with instructions to hold an evidentiary hearing on the question of the adequacy of funding. Background in the case, starting with that Ninth Circuit decision, is available starting at the second link. The district court’s October 11 order, at the third link, held the state in contempt for missing the earlier deadline. The last link is to information on a separate but unsuccessful challenge under the state constitution to the state’s funding system as to at-risk students.]
March 2007 district court ruling
NSBA School Law pages on Aug. 2006 Ninth Circuit opinion
October 11 district court order
NSBA School Law pages on Crane v. Arizona