by David Safier
The Arizona fight over ELL funding is going all the way to the Supremes.
The U.S. Supreme Court today agreed to step into a long-running lawsuit in Arizona over funding for services to English-language learners.
The justices accepted appeals from legislative leaders and the state schools superintendent of lower-court rulings that Arizona was not adequately funding ELL programs under federal law. A federal judge has ordered the state legislature to increase funding for such programs or else face fines of as much as $2 million per day.
To refresh your memory, in 1992 a suit was brought against the state for underfunding ELL education. In 2000, then in 2007, the courts agreed, saying the state must put more funds into its ELL programs. Our Ed Supe Tom Horne was unhappy with the decisions — very, very unhappy — and appealed the case to the Supreme Court. Atty Gen Terry Goddard urged the Supremes not to review the case. But today they said they will.
An interesting sidelight: Horne's appeal request was written in part by Ken Starr, the independent counsel who brought us Monica Lewinsky — and charges over $900 an hour. Now that's what I call spending taxpayer money wisely!
This isn't good for our ELL kids. If the Supreme Court hadn't accepted the appeal, Horne and the legislature would have to find more money for ELL. The right-leaning court wouldn't have taken the case if there wasn't the possibility of overturning the earlier decision.
The Justices are supposed to hear the case sometime in April and we'll probably know their decision in late June.
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Patt, you know something I don’t know. Please tell me more about the ELL task force. Who created it? For what purpose? What has it done so far?
If Arizona really cared about the education of their ELLs, why would the legislature create and give the top position on the ELL taskforce to an investment manager?
“Mr. Maguire is the President and Principal Economist of the Maguire Company, an independent, economic
forecasting and public policy consulting firm. Prior to forming The Maguire Company, Alan was a senior
investment banker with a regional securities firm where he was the leading financial advisor in the State of
Arizona and served as either senior manager or senior financial advisor on over $1 billion in tax-exempt
financing.”
http://www.aztreasury.gov/press/PR-AlanMaguire.pdf
Could it be that the legislature needed cover for the outrageous scheme they devised to punish the children of Spanish speakers?
BTW, TUSD and Sunnyside have the most ELLs, yet received none of the 40 million set aside by the state for ELLs. Go figure.
David,
Judges can’t appropriate money from the treasury, that’s the Legislature’s job; you know, that seperation of powers thingy explained in the Constitution. The Federal judge exceeded his authority and the Supreme Court will put him in his place.
There is also something called the 10th Amendment that cleary states that if it isn’t in the Constitution, it’s the States’ business, not the Feds.
Where does it say that the feds control foreign language education? Where does it say they should have a say in education at all?
This is clearly a States’ Rights issue. The Federal government, predominantly the Federal courts, have exceeded their contitutional authority for too long. If the judge didn’t like the way the Legislature was funding ELL, he should have resigned from the bench and ran for office.