With More Time, Lawmakers Pause on ELL Funding Issue
March 13th, 2008 @ 3:23pm
by Associated Press

A judge gave Arizona legislators more time to provide additional funding for instruction of students learning English - and they're going to use it.

The House Appropriations Committee had been scheduled to consider $40 million of new funding for English Language Learning programs on Thursday.

But consideration of the plan has been postponed in the wake of a judge's decision Tuesday to grant extra time to Republican legislative leaders who had already blown a March 4 deadline.

With the extension, the Legislature now has until April 15 to provide more money to comply with an 8-year-old court order based on a federal law requiring equal opportunities in education.

``Now we have the time to do it right,'' said House Majority Leader Tom Boone, R-Peoria. ``I still believe we'll be ahead of the April 15 deadline.''

But there was an indication of at least some disarray on the issue among the ranks of majority Republicans.

Appropriations Committee Chairman Russell Pearce said he balked at proposing the legislation to his committee, as chairman normally do with a proposal offered on behalf of the Republican majority's leadership.

``I struggle with this,'' Pearce said, explaining that he believes the federal court is unconstitutionally intruding on the authority of state legislators and that ELL programs aren't a cost that the state should be forced to bear.

``When people come here, it's their job to learn (English). It's not my job to teach them,'' said Pearce, one of the Legislature's leading advocates of measures against illegal immigration.

A Democratic member of the Appropriations Committee, Rep. David Lujan of Phoenix, said he was prepared to vote for the $40 million though he agrees with school officials who have called it a pittance compared to the $274 million requested by districts and charter schools.

``It's not sufficient but at least its a start,'' Lujan said. ``The school districts need the money to implement the models.''

Lawmakers are trying to find a way to implement a 2006 state law revamping ELL programs for some 138,000 students statewide.



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