Arizona Starts Accruing Big Fines in Lawsuit Over English-Learners

Arizona began accruing fines of $500,000 per day last week after Gov. Janet Napolitano and state legislators failed to meet a federal court’s deadline for reaching an agreement on how to increase funding in public schools for the education of English-language learners.

The governor and legislators missed the Jan. 24 deadline set by U.S. District Judge Raner C. Collins in a December 16 ruling on a 14-year-old lawsuit, Flores v. Arizona , concerning the education of Arizona’s 160,000 English-learners. In that ruling, Judge Collins wrote that the state had to find a way to pay for an adequate education for English-language learners or face fines of $500,000 per day.

Under that ruling, the fines would increase to a maximum of $2 million per day if the issue remains unsettled at the end of the current legislative session this spring. ( "Arizona Gets Ultimatum on Aid for English-Learners," ...