A federal judge has set a deadline of March 4 for the Arizona legislature to approve a plan to pay adequately for the education of English-language learners. U.S. District Court Judge Raner C. Collins had given lawmakers until the end of the 2007 legislative session to fix the problem, but they missed the deadline. The judge set the new deadline on Oct. 11.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, in San Francisco, has agreed to hear arguments Dec. 4 on claims from Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne and Republican legislative leaders that Judge Collins ignored evidence of the progress of ELLs when he ruled on March 22 that the state had to provide more money for such students.
