DALLAS -- Arizona schools are seeking a court order to restore $330 million in state aid that they say is due them under an Arizona Supreme Court ruling last year.
The state's high court ruled last year in a case known as Cave Creek Unified School District v. Ducey that Arizona had ignored a 2000 voter mandate to adjust school funding annually for inflation.
Arizona schools received the adjustments for the current fiscal year and Gov. Jan Brewer's budget includes the adjustments for the next school year.
But attorney Don Peters, who is representing the schools, told Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Kathleen Cooper on Jan. 21 that the state never provided inflation adjustments for four previous years, thereby reducing subsequent adjustments.
A 2000 ballot measure raised the state's 5% sales tax by 0.6 cents per dollar through June 30, 2021. Approved by 53.5% of the voters, the measure also required the Legislature to forever increase funding for schools by 2% or the change in the gross domestic price index, whichever is less.
The Supreme Court's ruling in 2013 found that the state's Voter Protection Act limits the legislature's power to modify voter initiatives and referenda. The Court specifically affirmed that while one legislature cannot restrict the lawmaking powers of future legislatures, the Arizona Constitution allows the voters to restrict those powers of future legislatures.
Arizona's leaders have cut over $1 billion in education funding since 2008, according to the Arizona chapter of the National Education Association, which was party to the suit.
While Arizona is recovering from the effects of the recession, which hit the state's economy especially hard, legislative leaders and a spokesman for Brewer said the budget constraints do not allow for a $330 million increase in school funding.
