Ariz. Faces Sanctions in LEP-Student Funding Lawsuit

By Mary Ann Zehr

The Arizona legislature adjourned last week without acting on a federal judge's directive to increase funding for students with limited English proficiency, raising the specter that the state could forfeit all federal funding—for everything from highway construction to schools—under a worst-case scenario.

Arizona officials and legislators said they expected to stave off penalties against the state by dealing with the issue in a special legislative session scheduled for this summer. But they acknowledged that it remained unclear whether that ultimately would satisfy the judge's requirements.

And the lawyer who represented limited-English-proficient students in the class action that set the current crisis in motion said he plans to ask the judge next week to increase the pressure on the state to comply with the court's earlier ruling that the state must increase...