State urges judge to hold off on blocking ELL mandates
May 29th, 2008 @ 5:48pm
by Associated Press

PHOENIX - State officials on Thursday asked a federal judge to either hold off or outright deny a request to prohibit the implementation of new state mandates on the instruction of students learning English.

Plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit challenging the adequacy of Arizona's English Language Learning programs asked the judge earlier this month to order the state to provide adequate funding for implementing newly required instruction models and to prohibit requiring school districts to use the models in the meantime.

The state is providing school districts and charter schools with $40.6 million of additional funding to implement the mandates, which include a requirement for four-hour daily periods of English instruction for the estimated 138,000 ELL students in the state. Districts contend they need approximately $275 million to implement the requirements.

A response filed Thursday on behalf of the state _ in a position reflecting the views of Gov. Janet Napolitano - acknowledged that the plaintiffs have raised legal issues covered by previous court orders in the case.

But U.S. District Judge Raner C. Collins in Tucson should not block implementation of the models without first considering the issues and what should be done about them, said the state's response.

In other responses filed Thursday, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne and Republican legislative leaders urged Collins to deny the plaintiffs' request. At the least, Horne and the legislators said, Collins should hold a hearing to take evidence on the issue.

Horne's response also said implementation of the models must go forward to avoid condemning ELL students to inadequate programs now provided by most districts.

"They must get at last four hours a day of intensive English language instruction and they must get it this coming school year," Horne attorney Eric Bistrow wrote. "A sanction that interfered with that would be a sanction against the students, not against the decision makers."

The Republican legislative leaders' response said the plaintiffs' request for funding above the $40.6 million should be turned away because the state has complied with court orders and "rationally funded every dollar requested by school districts" and certified by Horne.

Meanwhile, the Arizona School Boards Association and school districts serving all or parts of Phoenix, Tucson, Tempe and Mesa filed a brief siding with the plaintiffs.

The ASBA and the districts argued that the 2006 state law requiring the models doesn't comply with previous court orders that the state can't reduce funding for ELL programs by amounts available for desegregation programs.

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