Advocating for English language learners: Flores v. Arizona, a case study

This dissertation focuses on the development and resolution of a funding case that affects educational programs for Arizona's English language learners. The purpose of this case study is to describe, through a political culture lens, the development and resolution of Flores v. Arizona. The Flores case, a class action lawsuit originally filed by Southern Arizona Legal Aid, sought adequate programs and financial resources for English language learners.; This study addressed the following question: How did Flores v. Arizona, a school finance case on behalf of ELLS, develop and come to a resolution within the political culture of Arizona? Additional questions which guided this study included (a) What were the characteristics of the political culture in which the Flores case developed? (b) What were the characteristics of the linguistic ideology in Arizona? (c) What were the characteristics of Arizona's fiscal policy?; Qualitative case study methodology was used as a guiding practice and determined the procedures to identify and define the political culture in Arizona in regards to the education of English language learners. Data were drawn from education statutes, authoritative court documents, newspaper articles, minutes from legislative and group meetings, and interviews with 11 key policy actors in the state of Arizona.; The data analysis process resulted in the emergence of the following three assertions: (a) Anti-federalism as characterized by a negative attitude toward the judiciary coupled with an elaborate system for delay tactics are fundamental aspects of Arizona's political culture; (b) Arizona's political culture is Anglo-centric as exemplified by anti-immigration, anti-bilingual sentiments and an English-only linguistic ideology, and (c) a conservative fiscal policy characterizes Arizona's political culture as evidenced by the Legislature's unwillingness to fund special interest groups.