Educators put price on English as 2nd language

Arizona Tax Revolt commentary:

There is a fundamental problem here that must be addressed. The Federal Government failed to secure the borders. Yet a Federal Court is ordering the state of Arizona to educate the children who crossed the border illegally. This effectively increases our property taxes to pay for the Federal governments blunder. Once we qualify the Arizona Tax Revolt measures we taxpayers will have the final say in property tax increases above the permitted 2% annual increase. So folks it’s up to you pay now with a few dollars contributed to the Tax Revolt and commit to gathering as many signatures as humanly possible, or one day soon it may be your home in foreclosure due to taxes you can not pay.

Marc Goldstone, Chair.
Arizona Tax Revolt

Published: January 24, 2008
The Arizona Republic
by Mary Jo Pitzl

The state will have to spend an additional $300 million a year to teach English successfully to non-native speakers in Arizona's schools, administrators said Wednesday.

That's nearly six times the $54 million the state currently spends on English-language-learner programs. And it puts an exclamation point on the financial dilemma facing the state as lawmakers grapple with budget deficits that reach beyond $1 billion.

Arizona is under a court order to improve instruction to children struggling to learn English.

The estimate released Wednesday by Arizona School Administrators offered the first glimpse at the overall cost of instruction and other services for such students.

"Generally, this issue is not on people's radar screens," said Debra Duvall, superintendent of the Mesa Unified School District, the state's largest. "It doesn't seem to be resonating with the ladies and gentlemen in the Legislature."

The figure was met with skepticism by Republican leaders, while Democratic lawmakers embraced it as a call to action.

But no one had any immediate idea on how to pay for the additional costs of teaching English to the estimated 140,000 students who are not proficient in English.

"It seems extremely high, based on what I've seen," House Majority Leader Tom Boone said.

The Peoria Republican, who also serves on the Deer Valley Unified School District board, said he has seen studies that put the added cost of beefing up English-language instruction at an amount that is more than one-third less than the new estimate.

"I knew it would cost money," said Speaker Pro Tem Bob Robson, who met with superintendents representing some of the schools in his Chandler, south Tempe and Ahwatukee district. But the question, the Chandler Republican said, is how much.

Like other GOP leaders, he cited the comparatively low cost for the Nogales Unified District in bringing its English-language learners up to par. The Nogales district is where a lawsuit started it all 15 years ago.

The Legislature passed a law two years ago that would spend an additional $14 million a year on English learners. But that was rejected by U.S. District Judge Raner Collins, who ordered lawmakers to come up with a new plan this year. He has set a March 4 deadline for the state to come up with a workable plan or face potential fines of up to $1 million a day.

The extra money is considered necessary to comply with a federal law that requires equal educational opportunities. To meet that goal, schools will have to hire language specialists, provide books and other materials and find enough classroom space for English learners during the required four hours a day of language instruction.

"There's no space to put these children," Duvall said. Republican legislative leaders and state schools Superintendent Tom Horne have challenged Collins' ruling before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A hearing was held last month, and a ruling is pending.

The school superintendents on Wednesday said they based their estimated $304.2 million price tag on survey results returned by 70 school districts.

The survey followed the criteria set out by a legislative task force, but school officials ignored certain items that they said either conflicted with Collins' ruling or did not reflect the reality that schools faced, such as the need for additional classrooms.

"We're just responding to the program they handed to us," said Greg Wyman, superintendent of the Apache Junction Unified School District. "We're just asking that the Legislature fund the program."

"It's going to be a challenge," said state Rep. David Lujan, a Phoenix Democrat and president of the Phoenix Union High School District board. "I don't know where it (the money) is going to come from. But we've known about this for years."

Lujan said the lack of a clear source of money for the state's educational obligation is one of the reasons he opposes the push to repeal a statewide property tax.

That tax was suspended for three years, and when it returns in mid-2009, it is expected to raise $250 million. GOP leaders, prodded by the business community, are pushing hard to make the tax repeal permanent.

Other lawmakers say the state needs to back up a few steps. State Rep. Linda Lopez, D-Tucson, favors a delay in the start of the English-learner programs until a better approach with an identified funding source is put into place.

State Sen. Paula Aboud, D-Tucson, said she may introduce legislation to put the task force guiding the state's English-learner policies under the state Board of Education rather than under the Legislature.

That, she believes, would lead to a new model on how to tackle the language challenge.

Both acknowledge these approaches would delay the objective of the program: to get non-native speakers up to speed in their English skills.

That delay may happen regardless. If lawmakers lose their appeal to the 9th Circuit, they have already signaled their intention to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"It's become a classic states-rights issue," Robson said. "Can a court impose upon a legislature and tell it how much money to appropriate and to what it should be appropriated?" Gov. Janet Napolitano had little comment on the issue, although she has repeatedly called on the Legislature to end the legal wrangling.

Her spokeswoman, Jeanine L'Ecuyer, said the governor had not seen the models on which the school superintendents based their estimates.

Meanwhile, school districts can begin submitting their funding requests for English-language programs to the state Department of Education today.

Those requests must use more narrowly defined criteria than what the schools used to reach their $304 million estimate.