PHOENIX — A 17-year-old legal and political dispute over Arizona’s school programs for students learning English will start anew after a U.S. Supreme Court decision that threw out years of previous rulings.

The high court ordered U.S. District Judge Raner C. Collins in Tucson to consider just how much the state’s efforts to improve its teaching methods have come toward meeting federal laws that require equal education for all students.

Before the June 25 Supreme Court ruling, Collins had ordered increased spending for the more than 100,000 students learning English in K-12 public schools. But state officials argued that new daily four-hour instruction periods and other changes could meet requirements of the Educational Opportunities Act.

The Supreme Court ruled that the state was entitled to a fresh legal review of the case, which was originally filed in 1992 on behalf of parents and students in a southern Arizona school district, Nogales Unified.

The justices’ 5-4 decision said the educational landscape has a now-retired judge ruled in 2000 that Arizona wasn’t providing the money for English learners to get an appropriate education.

Since 2000, the two sides have fought over what constitutes compliance with the order. At one point, Collins imposed over $20 million in daily fines on the state for noncompliance. The fines were later rescinded on appeal.

The Supreme Court’s ruling sent the case back to Collins, and a recent joint filing by lawyers for the class-action plaintiffs and for state officials defending the program outline what will happen next.

The Supreme Court said the case should no longer apply statewide unless the plaintiffs can show there are statewide violations, so plaintiffs’ attorney Tim Hogan said his first order of business is be to show that the Nogales district’s programs are inadequate.

Key elements of the district’s programs are mandated by the state, so any legal shortcomings apply statewide, he said. That includes the recently adopted four-hour instruction periods and exit tests.

“It’s changed from a funding case to a programmatic case,” Hogan said. “The Supreme Court has kind of laid out the road map for what we do now and what we do now is address the adequacy of the education that these kids are receiving and that’s a good thing.”

Hogan’s motion to expand the case statewide is due Sept. 30, while state officials defending the program intend to seek a hearing showing compliance with the Equal Educational Opportunities Act.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, who is allied with Republican legislative leaders in defending the English language learner programs, said he’s confident the state can demonstrate that its revamped program will pass muster.

The four-hour daily instructional periods have proven to be effective in providing students the necessary education so they can be reclassified as proficient in English, he said.

“I cannot guess how long it may take, but I believe what the Supreme Court has done with it has made it almost impossible for the plaintiffs to win the case,” Horne said. “Their burden is going to be to prove that the actions that we’re taking to teach students English are not appropriate actions.”

Horne said he didn’t know whether he and Republican legislative leaders would oppose expanding the case statewide. “I think we’re equally strong regardless,” he said.