Court Opinion

ID: 9544771
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:01:31.018511+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:13:37.623916
License: Public Domain

STRUCKMEYER, Chief Justice,
dissenting.
I concur with Justice Cameron in his belief that the High School District is a State agency. In addition to the reasons which he sets forth in his dissent, I feel that the Constitution of Arizona plainly controls.
By art. 11, § 1, of the Constitution of Arizona, it is provided:
“The Legislature shall enact such laws as shall provide for the establishment and maintenance of a general and uniform public school system, which system shall include kindergarten schools, common schools, high schools, normal schools, industrial schools, and a university * * *.”
If the high schools of this State are not State agencies, then neither are the universities nor is the Board of Regents. See State of Arizona v. Miser, 50 Ariz. 244, 72 P.2d 408 (1937); City of Tempe v. Arizona Board of Regents, 11 Ariz.App. 24, 461 P.2d 503 (1969). This is, of course, palpably absurd.
Moreover, by art. 11, § 10, of the Constitution, the Legislature is required to “make such appropriations * * * as shall insure the proper maintenance of all State educational institutions.” Since the Constitution, by art. 11, § 1, requires that the Legislature establish high schools as part of the State educational system, the words “all State educational institutions” used in § 10 can only refer to those educational institutions named in § 1. The conclusion is absolutely compelled that the public school system is a State system.