Flores v. Horne et al.
The Center is waiting for a ruling in Flores, a nearly twenty year-old case in which the state continues to refuse equal educational access to a large percentage of Arizona's schoolchildren.
The state wants to segregate and confine English Language Learner ("ELL") students to four hours of English language instruction every day.
A typical school day runs about six hours, which means that ELLs have only two hours to learn substantive curriculum such as mathematics, science and social studies, not to mention other important facets of education including music, art, physical education and computer technology.
The federal Equal Education Opportunities Act ("EEOA") requires the state to allow all students equal participation in public school programs. Because ELL students are not provided the same access to academic curriculum as non-ELL students, the state continues to be in violation of the EEOA.
During the most recent trial in this case, the first half of which took place in federal court in Tucson this September, Defendants Tom Horne and the President and Speaker of the legislature defended the four hour segregation requirement. They argued that four hours of language instruction every day would allow ELL students to acquire English faster. But, there is no evidence to back up their claim.
For starters, students at Nogales Unified School District (where the case began) who are in the four hour model are not acquiring English at an appreciably faster rate than they did when they had ELL class for only one or two hours per day. Moreover, the Center will present evidence that it takes about three years for ELL students to become English proficient. While it might be defensible to deny students access to academic courses for one year, there is no rational to justify excluding ELLs from a basic education for three years. That's a deficit that ELLs would never be able to overcome, and it leads to high drop-out rates among high school ELL students.
The trial that began on September 1 was supposed to end on September 24. The state -- represented at trial by five, separate, private attorneys (all paid with tax dollars) -- took every single one of the 15 trial days to present just its side of the evidence. As a result, the trial was continued to January 2011 and was completed on January 11.
The Center now awaits the Court's ruling in it's fight against the state's ghettoization of Arizona's ELL students.
The history of this case is as follows:
Flores was filed in 1992 on behalf of a class of parents and children in the Nogales Unified School District generally alleging the state was inadequately funding programs and services for ELLs. After a trial in 1999, judgment was entered against the state in 2000. Between 2000 and 2008, the Center returned to federal court numerous times because the state continually failed to comply with court orders to provide adequate funding for ELL programs.
After U.S. District Court Judge Raner Collins imposed fines against the state for failing to comply with the judgment, the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the President and Speaker of the legislature appealed the ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and then the U.S. Supreme Court. In June 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in a 5-4 decision that the state had no independent obligation under the EEOA to provide adequate funding for ELL programs. According to the majority, the only federal issue is whether school districts have sufficient total resources to adequately fund ELL programs. The case was remanded to the U.S. District Court for a determination of whether the Nogales Unified School District had programs in place that complied with the EEOA. The U.S. Supreme Court added that Arizona should be relieved from compliance with the judgment unless it could be shown that the state itself was violating the EEOA.
On remand, the Center argued that Arizona is indeed in violation of the EEOA because it requires school districts to segregate ELLs for four hours of every school day. As a result, English language learners are denied access to academic curriculum and equal educational opportunities.
Case Updates
Tim Hogan, the Center's Executive Director since 1991, has been selected to receive the National Education Association's 2011 George I. Sanchez Memorial Award. This Human and Civil Rights Award is presented each year to an individual whose activities in Hispanic affairs significantly impact education and the achievement of equal opportunities for Hispanics. This award recognizes Hogan's exemplary accomplishments during his tenure at the Center and specifically, his untiring work on the Flores case: a 20+ year case in which Hogan has relentlessly fought for the educational rights of non-native English speaking students.
On January 11, Center staff attorney Tim Hogan finished presenting evidence in this nearly 20-year old case. Questioning witnesses in front of Judge Rainer Collins in Tucson's federal courthouse, Mr. Hogan showed that when English Language Learner students are segregated for two-thirds of every school day for more than one year, they are being denied equal access to education. The state has not shown that it can teach English to students within a year, yet it continues to ghettoize students in English language classes for four hours every day. These students are missing out on all other aspects of the curriculum, including basics such as math, science and social studies.
The Judge has ordered the parties to submit concluding briefs, findings of fact, and conclusions of law by March 10. The Center expects a ruling in late Spring.
11/23: Center staff attorney Tim Hogan is in federal court in Tucson arguing against the forced segregation of English Language Learner students in Arizona public schools.