The U.S. Supreme Court took a major step toward ending a 17-year legal battle Thursday, saying lower courts made a mistake by focusing too much on forcing Arizona to spend more money to help students who haven’t yet learned to speak, read or write English.

Scott Drake interviews Luis Bartolomei a partner with Reyes, Bartolomei and Browne in Dallas.

(Arizona Daily Star) The U./S. Supreme Court ruled Arizona lawmakers don’t have to provide more funds to teach English to students statewide.

The justices accepted the arguments by attorneys for state School Superintendent Tom Horne that it was improper for a federal judge in Tucson to issue a statewide injunction without evidence that school districts throughout Arizona were violating the Equal Education Opportunity Act. That law requires states to ensure that all students have an opportunity to learn, an opportunity which specifically requires states to take “appropriate action” to help students become proficient in English.

Justice Samuel Alito, writing the majority decision, said the only thing that is relevant is whether the Nogales Unified School District — the district at issue when the lawsuit was filed in 1992 — is now doing a better job of teaching English to its students.

The ruling most immediately absolves the state of funding an additional $40.6 million to schools. But it also opens the door to lawmakers actually being able to decrease some of the extra dollars they have given schools in the past to help students classified as “English language learners.”

In fact, Alito said that U.S. District Court Judge Raner Collins overstepped his authority in all of his mandates to the Legislature to provide more money, several of which were enacted under the threat of monetary penalties, orders that were repeatedly upheld by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.