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UPDATE -Saturday, March 18, 2006
Thursday, March 16 - Judge Collins announced two rulings. In the first, he determined that the $22 million that were collected in fines for not acting on his order to adequately fund ELL programs must be distributed to school districts on a per student basis for English language learner programs. In another ruling, he denied a request by State Superintendent Horne to reverse the Judge's December ruling that ELL students will not be required to take the AIMs test as a condition of graduation until ELL programs are adequately funded. More details.
Wednesday, March 8 - Both the House and Senate vote to allow their Leadership to represent them in court to deal with ELL issues. State Superintendent Tom Horne files a claim in Federal Court asking for a hearing to determine if HB 2064 meets the court order requirements. A court hearing is set for April 3.
Friday, March 3 - Governor Napolitano announces that she will allow HB 2064 to become law without her signature. In a written statement, she describes the flaws in the bill and explains that the most direct way to get the Legislature to move closer to an adequate solution is to have the Federal Court take action, again. The fines are no longer being assessed and Napolitano asks for an expedited ruling. Click here to read the Governor's statement.
Thursday, March 2 - The Senate approved HB 2064 by a 16-14 vote and transmitted it to the Governor.
Monday, February 27 - Appointees of the House and Senate met this morning in conference committee and made some changes to the ELL Senate Bill passed on Thursday. Unfortunately, the new version of HB 2064 is has inadequate funding, limits funding for an ELL students to only two years, and has other flaws. AEA believes that if passed, this bill will be found to be illegal by the Federal Courts.
After a conference committee makes changes to bill, it must be approved by a full vote of both the House and the Senate. The House was able to vote on HB 2064 this afternoon and if barely passed on a 31-27 vote. The Senate will vote on this bill as early as tomorrow morning. AEA opposes this version of HB 2064.
Thursday, February 23 - The Senate uses a "strike everything" amendment to a House Bill that has already been passed by the House and substitutes ELL provisions. By using this process, the Senate only needs to vote and approve it and if the House Primary Sponsor of the Bill agrees with the ELL provisions, it goes straight to the House for a final vote. The Senate passes the bill on a 16-14 vote with all the Democrats and Republican Senators Gould and Verschoor voting no. But, House Speaker Weiers does not concur with the bill a cancells an evening meeting of the House to approve it.
AEA does not support the strike everything bill, HB 2064, because it does not provide adequate funding, it requires school districts to use their Title I funds on ELL before receiving the funding, and it only funds an ELL student for two years and then arbitrarily cuts off funding. In addition HB 2064 eliminates the current "Group B" weight funding for ELL students and will not replace it if the Federal Court finds the plan to be illegal, effectively leaving Districts with no ELL funding at all.
Wednesday, February 22 - Attempts to reach a bi-partisan agreement stall and Senate President Bennett initiates the introduction of a new ELL Bill in the Senate.
Monday February 20 - Negotiations continue for the third straight week. Senate President Ken Bennett announces that he believes something must be done this week because fines will double to $1 million per day by Friday.
Monday, February 6 - Governor Napolitano writes another letter to Senator Bennett and House Speaker Weiers offering to continue to work on the issue and acknowledging that some of the accountability measures the Republican Leadership prefers are acceptable, but the parties remain far apart. See news story here.
Friday, February 3 - Judge Collins accepts arguments from Superintendent Tom Horne and Attorney General Terry Goddard concerning how fines being collected against the State for not funding ELL students will be dispersed to support ELL programs. Ruling is expected next week.
Wednesday, February 1 - Senate President Bennett and House Speaker Jim Weiers respond with a letter to the Governor rejecting any compromise without allowing a hearing by Legislators. Read news account.
Tuesday, January 31 - The Governor responded to a request by Senate President Ken Bennett and House Speaker Jim Weiers to provide them with a proposal to resolve the English Language Learner stand-off. She sent the Republican Leaders a detailed compromise proposal. Read the proposal. Send a message.
Monday, January 30 - Senate President Ken Bennett and House Speaker Jim Weiers, the Republican Legislative Leaders, made an unscheduled visit to the Governor's office and asked her to make a proposal to resolve the English Language Learners issue.
Thursday, January 26 - Judge Collins, the Federal Judge in the Flores case, ruled in favor of the Governor and ordered the State to hold the fines in a special account for English language learners. The Judge provides the Governor and the Superintendent of Public Instruction until Tuesday, January 31 to prepare arguments of how the fines should be used to support ELL students.
Wednesday, January 25 - Early in the day, Governor Napolitano vetoed HB 2002. Read the Veto Message Here.
The $500,000 daily fines begin.
Senate President Bennett and House Speaker Weiers had a new conference claiming that the Governor was preventing ELL students from receiving the funding they needed by vetoing SB 1198 and HB 2002.
Tuesday, January 24 - Governor Napolitano announced her veto of SB 1198. Read the Veto Message Here. The Governor called for a Special Session of the Legislature that began at 5:00 p.m. in the evening. Her call limited the issue to resolution of the public school ELL issue.
At her afternoon news conference , the Governor also announced that Attorney General Terry Goddard is taking legal action in Federal Court to ask that any fines assessed against the State for failing to enact ELL Legislation will be deposited in a special account at the Department of Education for English Language Learners. The Legislature had until midnight to send her a new proposal before the $500,000 daily fine takes effect.
The Governor emphasized that it would be fiscally irresponsible to sign SB 1198 because its Corporate Tuition Income Tax Credit contained no cap, creating another unlimited tax credit similar to the alternative fuels tax credit that nearly bankrupted the state a few years ago. That prompted the Legislature to pass the exact same provisions in the evening Special Session as HB 2002 with the exact same language as SB 1198 except for a flawed cap of $50 million per year for the corporate tuition income tax credit.
Monday, January 23 - When the negotiations ended, the Republican Leadership rushed SB 1198 through the Legislative process in just two days. AEA opposed SB 1198 and identical HB 2660 because the bills provide only $14 million for ELL and left the allocation of the funds to school districts up to an uncertain grant process that would not ensure all ELL students would receive the funds needed. By a largely partisan vote, the Legislature amended the inadequately funded English language learner bill by adding tuition tax credits for private schools and passed it late Monday. Tim Hogan, the lawyer representing the plaintiff in the Flores case reacted to the passage of SB 1198 by stating, "They don't want to spend any additional money on these kids. Inner-city school districts will never see a dime of new state money under this plan."
Prior to January 23 the Governor was meeting with the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Legislature to craft a bi-partisan English language learner bill to provide adequate resources to our schools and meet the requirements of the Flores Consent Decree. The Judge in the Flores case had set January 24th as the deadline for the Legislature to send the Governor a bill that meets the needs of ELL students or begin paying escalating daily fines of $500,000 increasing to $2 million. The most recent Legislative cost study estimated that adequate ELL funding was about $200 million per year. The Republican Leadership ended these meetings on Wednesday, January 18 when the Governor vetoed a Corporate Tuition Tax Credit Bill.
What Do Arizona Citizens Say About the ELL Issue?
See How Your Legislators Voted
Read About the History of the Flores Case
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