A federal judge has given the Arizona legislature until the end of April or the end of the 2005 session—whichever comes later—to figure out how to appropriately fund programs for English-language learners.
The Jan. 25 ruling by U.S. District Judge Raner C. Collins in Tucson is the latest court action taken in the Flores v. Arizona lawsuit, which was filed in 1992.
Timothy M. Hogan, the executive director of the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest, who represents the plaintiffs in the case, has returned to court numerous times to try to force the legislature to meet the federal court’s orders on the education of English-language learners.
In December 2001, the legislature more than doubled the allotment to schools for each such student, from $150 to $340. But that was intended to be an interim measure, and the same bill required a cost study that was to be completed last August. Mr. Hogan asked the court in a Dec. 18 motion to set a deadline for the legislature to fix the problem. He said no final cost study has been released to the public.
