Phoenix, AZ – August 13, 2025: Today, Judge Dewain Fox ruled that Arizona’s funding for the capital needs of Arizona’s public schools is unconstitutional and must be reformed.
In a thorough, 114-page Order, the court explained, “After carefully and thoroughly reviewing the record . . . the Court concludes that the current public-school capital finance system does not meet the constitutional minimum standards established by the Arizona Supreme Court.”
The school districts and education associations who brought this case issued the following joint statement.
Today’s decision declaring Arizona’s public school financing system unconstitutional is a historic victory for Arizona’s public-school students, as well as their teachers and staff. It will change the future for millions of students and their families. Our state’s constitution requires the legislature to fund our public schools. It’s time for our legislature to fulfill its constitutional obligation to fund public schools in every corner of Arizona so that all students, whether or not they live in a wealthy area, can receive a quality public education.
Danny Adelman, the Executive Director of the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest, explained, “We presented mountains of evidence proving that the current system fails to provide even the most basic resources needed for a quality education. The state is failing to adequately or equitably fund our public schools. This is not only wrong, it’s unconstitutional.”
“This is an incredible victory,” said John Bullock of Osborn Maledon, who served as co-counsel with the Center for Law in the Public Interest. “Our clients have devoted their lives to educating students. But the State has set up a system that results in vast disparity between the haves and the have-nots. Whether schools can afford to have decent facilities should not depend on the amount of property wealth in the district. Unfortunately, due to a lack of state funding, that is exactly the system we have today.”
The case, Glendale Elementary School District et al. v. Arizona, was filed in 2017 by four Arizona public school districts (Glendale Elementary, Crane Elementary, Chino Valley Unified, and Elfrida Elementary), and the Arizona School Boards Association, the Arizona Education Association, and the Arizona School Administrators. They sued the State of Arizona for failing to uphold the legislature’s constitutional obligation to provide a “general and uniform” system of public education.
In the 1990s, the Arizona Supreme Court struck down the then-existing funding system as unconstitutional and established specific tests that any funding system must meet. The school plaintiffs in this case proved that the current system violates every part of those tests.