Arizona
School Funding Cases Move Forward In an eventful week for advocates on
both sides of two standards-based school funding cases in Arizona,
the Arizona Supreme Court cleared the way for trial in a case filed on behalf
of "at-risk" students, and plaintiffs filed their appeal brief with
the same court in a lawsuit filed to contest the legislature's use of funds meant
for school facilities to, instead, help balance the state budget. On September
11, 2003, the Arizona Supreme Court denied the state's request for review of a
lower court decision that denied the state's motion to dismiss the "at-risk"
case, Crane Elementary School District v. State. The next day, the law
firm hired by the state to defend in Crane delivered voluminous papers to plaintiffs'
attorneys in the case, the Arizona
Center for Law in the Public Interest, including a motion for summary judgment.
The seven school-district plaintiffs in Crane Elementary allege
that the State's education finance system violates the Arizona Constitution because
it does not provide funding that is sufficient for the programs at-risk students
need to enable them to meet the state's academic
standards. On September 15, plaintiffs in Roosevelt Elementary School
District v. State, who claim the state is violating the state constitution
and certain state laws, presented their Petition for Review to the state's supreme
court. An intermediate appellate court ruled earlier this year in favor of the
state, after a lower court had ruled in favor of plaintiffs. The state enacted
the statutes in question ("Students FIRST") in 1998, in response to
the supreme court's historic decisions in Hull
v. Albrecht. In Albrecht, the court ordered the state to establish
standards for buildings and equipment, which must be aligned with the state's
student academic standards, and develop a funding system that ensures no school
district falls below those standards. In recent years, however, the state has
diverted over $200 million away from the state agency set up by Students FIRST
to administer the Albrecht remedy, the School
Facilities Board. Prepared by Molly A. Hunter, September
26, 2003 | 
