Judge Rules Arizona Law Doesn’t Satisfy Court Order

A federal judge has ruled that a law passed in March by the Arizona legislature that increased funding for English-language learners falls short of a previous court order.

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democrat, opposed the Republican-led measure, but let it become law to break a stalemate over how to address a December U.S. District Court ruling that meted out daily fines to the state for not figuring out how to adequately pay for programs for English-learners.

Arizona accrued $21 million in fines before lawmakers approved the measure in March.

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But U.S. District Judge Raner Collins ruled April 26 that the law comes up short because the $77 increase in funding for each English-learner “doesn’t bear any rational relationship to the cost of providing an ELL program.”