Horne Vows Court Challenge Of Mayes’ “Politically Charged” Dual Language Opinion – Arizona Daily Independent

Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne is pushing back against an opinion issued by current Attorney General Kris Mayes regarding the state’s Structured English Immersion law.

Horne is calling the formal opinion “ideologically driven.”

Horne had raised the possibility that the 50-50 Dual Language Immersion Model approved by the Arizona State Board of Education in 2020, might conflict with Proposition 203.

In response, the Arizona Attorney General released its formal opinion on Monday, finding in part:

In sum, the Board has sole statutory authority to delete or modify an SEI model. Further, the Board holds the authority to make the final determination as to whether a school district or charter school is noncompliant and ineligible for ELL funding…

Because the Dual Language Model is a Board-approved SEI model, no waiver is required for schools that utilize the Dual Language Model to serve ELLs. See §§ 15-752, -753, -756.01(A).

In 2000, more than 925,000 Arizonans – 63 percent of voters – approved Proposition 203, making English immersion the law.

“It is surprising that the Attorney General evades the key issue, placing ideology over the law,” said Horne in a press release.

“The Attorney General Opinion, in the second paragraph under background, recites that the voter passed, and voter protected initiative (Proposition 203) requires that English Language Learners be taught in English. A dual language program without waivers is an obvious violation of that to anybody who can read English. The Arizona Legislative Council reached that conclusion,” explained Horne, who is also a former Arizona Attorney General.

“The Attorney General, for ideological reasons, wanted to rule in favor of the Democrat legislators who favor dual language,” continued Horne. “So, she refused to comment on whether a dual language program without waivers violates the voter protected initiative. She simply said that the State Board of Education has the power to adapt models under legislation. Neither the legislature nor the board has the power to overrule a voter approved initiative. Legislative Council found that dual language without a waiver does violate the initiative.”

“This will obviously be resolved in the courts. Until that happens, the State Board will not withhold funds. However, there are other remedies in the initiative for violation of its requirements. Any parent can sue a school or district that adopts dual language without waivers, and if the parent is successful, the school board, and the superintendent, and maybe the principal must leave office and cannot apply for their offices for five years. That will be a considerable incentive for school districts not to adopt dual language without waivers,” concluded Horne.

The State Board said in a press release that it will act “in accordance with this finding.” As a result, it will not alter the state’s current approved Structured English Immersion models, including the 50-50 Dual Language Immersion Model.

Additionally, the Board says it will not take action against any school that is using the 50-50 Dual Immersion Model to instruct English language learners.

In announcing his intentions to crack down on school districts that neglect to provide adequate English instruction to students, Horne pointed to “both historical and current data…”

“Before I took office the first time in 2003, when they had bilingual education, Lisa Graham Keegan reported to the legislature an English proficiency rate of 4%.  The English proficiency rates for structured English immersion, by contrast for the last four years when I was last Superintendent (2007-2010), were an average of 31% each for those years,” noted Horne.  “For current data, we looked up the English proficiency rates for dual language for the four schools we were able to locate who have had dual language for more than the last few years. ”

Horne also pointed out what he called “a key sentence from the voter passed initiative (Prop 203), A.R.S. §15-752 which states, “All children in Arizona public schools shall be taught English by being taught in English and all children shall be placed in English language classrooms.”