Tom Horne recruited Scottsdale woman to sue Phoenix school district over dual-language program

PHOENIX - Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne has recruited a Scottsdale parent to sue a Phoenix area school district over its dual language program.

The new suit was filed just a few days after a judge dismissed a similar lawsuit filed by the Superintendent of public instruction. The judge said Horne has no authority under state law to file it.

Horne, however, made it known he would not stop with legal action, and that the next time it's brought up, the lawsuit will come from a parent.

"When I heard he needed help with this lawsuit from a parent, I was more than happy to volunteer, so I reached out to him, actually," said Patricia Pellett.

Pellett is a Scottsdale Unified School District parent who says her immigrant husband benefited from being immersed in English.

"He immigrated to the United States from China at the age of seven, not knowing one word of English," said Pellett. "He was fully immersed in English in school, and he quickly became proficient in English, and he's done quite well, thanks to it."

That is why Pellett believes dual language programs in classrooms are not beneficial.

"Full immersion works," said Pellett. "These children are speaking in their native language at home, right? Now they're speaking it half during the day. Where are they practicing their English?"

In 2000, 60% of voters approved a ballot measure known as Proposition 203, which ended dual language learning for non-English speakers. For decades, Horne, who has served a prior stint as the state’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, has made it a priority to get rid of dual language programs in schools.

"We will establish, which should be obvious from the initiative, that it's not legal to put English Language Learners in dual language classrooms, because the initiative says, in so many words, that students studying English must be taught English by being taught in English, and they have to be an English language classroom. The language is very clear," said Horne. "Recent data shows that structured English immersion schools are four times better than the dual language schools, and bringing kids up to proficiency in English so they can succeed academically in the classroom."

Lawyer handing the lawsuit is Tom Horne's wife

When Pellett reached out, Horne connected her with an attorney: Carmen Horne. As mentioned above, the attorney is also Horne’s wife.

"As you could see, she believes passionately in it, and she's an excellent lawyer," said Horne. "I thought she'd be great to do it."

Carmen recently filed a similar lawsuit to her husband's. That lawsuit was recently dismissed by the judge.

"This is an initiative that was voted on by the people in Arizona," said Carmen. "So, it's the law that you should bring in children that cannot speak English to an English immersion system so that they can become proficient, so that they can be really competitive in the economy."

Carmen argues she was immersed in the English language when she moved to the U.S. from Cuba, which helped her learn the language in 4 months.

"It was pretty easy to pick up the language when you're immersed in it and constantly communicating that in all your classes," said Carmen.

The new lawsuit is only against Creighton School District, which is located in Phoenix.

"Creighton has a 5% rate of students becoming proficient English in one year, which is pathetically low, and I think that helps to illustrate the point," said Horne.

Creighton School District officials say their ‘dual language immersion model’ was approved by the State Board of Education as a model for English Language Development. In a statement, they say "We are working with our legal counsel on this matter. We always strive to do what is best for our kids. We will continue to support parent choice and the programs that are supported by our community and families."

Governing Board member weighs in

The Creighton School District Superintendent, along with all five governing board members, were named in this lawsuit.

"I don't see how being strong linguistically. or being bilingual or tri-lingual is going to hurt anyone," said Governing Board member Katie Gipson-McLean. "In fact, I think it's only going to make our students more successful."

Gibson-McLean talked about a particular detail in this latest lawsuit with us.

"This new lawsuit is a little bit different, in that it's requesting for relief that each one of us board members be removed from office and barred from holding office for the next five years," said Gipson-McLean. "That's much more extreme than what was in the last lawsuit, and we weren't personally named in the last lawsuit, either."

Gipson-McLean also said the district has dual language immersion programs at two of its schools.

"I believe he is trying to get some sort of injunctive relief from the courts to stop us from having those programs in our school," said Gipson-McLean.

Gipson McLean said as an alumni of the Creighton School District who grew up in the diverse community, she is frustrated with this lawsuit.

"I would imagine that Mr. Horne and his attorneys probably were just finding any person that's cooperative with them to file a lawsuit, because I'm sure they knew that the dismissal was coming in the last case, and we're ready to file a new one right away to continue to pursue the same litigation."

Horne says he is appealing his original lawsuit.

"But in the meantime, any parent in the state clearly has the right to do it, because it's right there in the initiative," said Horne. "Any parent can sue any district in the state."

Horne also said other districts weren’t named in the lawsuit like the previous one, because he hopes that when the judge determines the school district is violating the law, other districts will fall in line.

Horne claims 10 school districts are violating the law.