An empty classroom at Gridley Middle School in Tucson. November 2020.
Creighton Elementary School District’s dual language program is protected for now after a Maricopa Superior Court judge dismissed the case.
The judge found that the Plaintiff Patricia Pellett, whose child is not enrolled in the district, lacked standing in her case.
The Phoenix-based school district came under fire earlier this year after State Schools Superintendent Tom Horne vowed to remove dual language immersion–a learning format that he says goes against Proposition 203, a voter-approved ballot measure.
In 2000, Arizona voters approved the initiative effectively bilingual education for English language learning students. But, in 2019, the state legislature asked the State Board of Education to expand its English Language Learning models after proficiency and graduation rates dropped among those students following the proposition’s passage. The board then approved four learning models:
- Pull-Out Model
- Two-Hour Model
- Newcomer Model
- 50/50 Dual Language Immersion Model, where a waiver is required
The lawsuit that is now dismissed claimed the Board could not overrule a voter-protected initiative.
The judge’s decision came down after both the school district and Attorney General Kris Mayes called for the dismissal.
This was Horne’s second attempt targeting the 50/50 language model. A judge dismissed his first case because the lawsuit needed to be brought on by a parent–not the state Department of Education. The more recent lawsuit was then brought on and represented by Horne’s wife, Carmen Chenal.
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