Court says Arizona must spend more on education

From The Arizona Republic: An appeals court panel has ruled that the Arizona Legislature must fully pay for the base education budget, something it hasn’t done for three years. The ruling by the state Court of Appeals amounts to an $80 million annual boost for schools. The three-judge panel effectively told the Legislature it cannot pick and choose which parts of a voter-approved school-funding initiative it wants to pay for. Proposition 301, a ballot measure that voters approved in 2000, calls for annual inflation adjustments to the base education-funding formula. But in the past three budget years, the Legislature paid only for minor elements in the education plan, omitting funding increases to account for inflation.