Appeals court stays order for state to pay up in 301 lawsuit

From our colleagues at the Arizona School Boards Association:

We wanted to take this time to update you on a recent court action regarding the Prop. 301 inflation lawsuit. This week, the Arizona Court of Appeals issued a stay on Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper's order that the Legislature reset the base student support level immediately (a $340 million impact to the state budget). This means there is no current order in place to enforce the judgment. We will now move to expedite the hearing on the substance of the appeal itself; however, we expect that this will take months, not weeks to happen.

A few takeaway points about this development:

• The fact that the Court of Appeals issued a discretionary stay instead of an automatic stay as the State requested, is a good sign for us. Also a good sign was that it was a 2-1 vote on the Court of Appeals panel to issue the stay - most stays do not have a dissenting vote.
• There are very active, on-going talks to settle the lawsuit in its entirety. The stay will not be a factor in those talks continuing.
• Litigation of this type can be long and arduous, complicated and unpredictable. Therefore, it is in all parties' best interests to settle the lawsuit and begin funding education with additional dollars as soon as possible. We all serve the students that would benefit from such an action.
• Finally, know that the plaintiffs - ASBA, the Arizona Education Association and the Arizona Association of School Business Officials as well as our school district partners, will not make any deal that is not in our members' best interests.