ARIZONA

Constitutional Clause/Language
“The Legislature shall enact such laws as shall provide for the establishment and maintenance of a general and uniform public school system . . .” Ariz.Const. art. XI, s 1.
 

Major Court Decision: Roosevelt Elementary School Dist. No. 66 v. Bishop, 877 P.2d 806

Result: Financing System Overturned

Summary:  Education is deemed to be a fundamental right in Arizona.  It is the state’s, not the local school districts’, responsibility to ensure a general and uniform education for all students.  The state may delegate some responsibility to counties and districts, but it cannot delegate, nor create, a funding system that produces gross inequalities between school districts.

Key Quotes:

“...We look in vain for any provision in the article that imposes any responsibility on school districts to fund public education. The only sources mentioned are the state and the counties. See §§ 8, 9, and 10. The enabling act imposed upon the state the responsibility to create and exclusively control a public school system.  Moreover, art. XI, § 1 makes it quite clear that the legislature must enact laws that establish and maintain the public school system. Discretion is left to the legislature as to how it does so, but it must do so.”  Id. at 814.

“In our effort to define ‘general and uniform,’ we distill two fundamental principles from these cases. First, units in “general and uniform” state systems need not be exactly the same, identical, or equal. Funding mechanisms that provide sufficient funds to educate children on substantially equal terms tend to satisfy the general and uniform requirement. School financing systems which themselves create gross disparities are not general and uniform.  The second principle relates to the tension that exists between the competing values of local control and statewide standards. As long as the statewide system provides an adequate education, and is not itself the cause of substantial disparities, local political subdivisions can go above and beyond the statewide system.”  Id. at 815.

“It is true that nothing in art. XI prohibits the legislature from delegating some of its authority to other political subdivisions of the state to help finance public education. But there is nothing in art. XI, § 1 that allows the state to delegate its responsibility under the constitution. Although the legislature may rely on school districts, counties and the state, the result must produce a general and uniform financing scheme.”  Id. at 813.

“Here, the state knew of the profound differences in property value among the districts, yet selected a funding mechanism where 45% of the revenue depends upon property value. Thus, the state's financing scheme could do nothing but produce disparities. The statutes are inherently incapable of achieving their constitutional purpose. Because the state's financing system is itself the cause of these disparities, the system, taken as a whole, does not comply with art. XI, § 1 of the Arizona Constitution.”  Id. at 816.

“The state has cited no compelling state interest in a school financing scheme that inescapably creates gross disparities in capital facilities. Although we recognize a valid state interest in local or school district control of education, the state does not tell us why its financing scheme for capital facilities must necessarily hinge so heavily on the property wealth of the individual districts, without providing for equalization or adopting one of the many other methods available for preventing gross disparity.”  Id. at 818.