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PHOENIX — Republican legislative leaders want former Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr to handle a U.S. Supreme Court appeal in a legal battle of adequacy of Arizona's instruction of students learning English but there's been a snag.

"Right now everything is up in the air," House Speaker Jim Weiers said Wednesday.

The Department of Administration has decided it will pay Starr up to $335 an hour, the state's regular rate for paying outside lawyers for complex appellate cases.

That's about a third of Starr's $910-an-hour billing rate.

"Each party should be able to select the counsel of their choice in this matter and Risk Management is willing to pay reasonable fees for those services," Risk Manager Ray Di Ciccio said in a response to a House official's e-mail regarding the selection of Starr.

Weiers, R-Phoenix, said he had just learned of Risk Management's decision and, after speaking with Di Ciccio, and planned to submit additional information on Starr's qualifications in hopes of getting a different decision.

The stakes are high in the case because so far the state has kept spending on its English Language Learning programs to reasonable levels, Weiers said.

"It kind of boggles my mind that they're trying to penny wise and pound foolish at this point," Weiers said. "With Ken Starr, I'm kind of perplexed."

Weiers and other Republican leaders support the planned Supreme Court appeal by state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, and Weiers said Starr's extensive experience in U.S. Supreme Court litigation would serve the state well.

Starr, a former federal judge, is dean of the Pepperdine University School of Law in California.

As independent counsel for Whitewater, Starr mounted a yearslong investigation that dogged President Clinton, capping a report explicitly detailing sexual escapades between the president and intern Monica Lewinsky. The scandal led to the impeachment of Clinton but he remained in office.

Though Starr would represent the legislative leaders in the U.S. Supreme Court appeal of a ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Republican legislative leaders plan to still use Phoenix attorney David Cantelme in proceedings that continue in the case in U.S. District Court in Tucson.

Cantelme is paid $325 an hour.

Arizona has approximately 130,000 ELL students.