2023 in review: Making Arizona Department of Education a service agency a Horne priority

For immediate release: December 11, 2023
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2023 in review: Making Arizona Department of Education a service agency a Horne priority

First act in office frees up $22 million in delayed payments to schools, educators

PHOENIX – A commitment to service is among the success stories of 2023 as state schools superintendent Tom Horne wraps up his first year back in office.

Horne previously served as superintendent between 2003 to 2011 and returned in 2023 to encourage academic excellence, empower parents and commit the department to a culture of service.

Horne noted, “Before my first term as state superintendent, I spent 24 years as a school board member of what was then the third-largest district in the state, and I was board president for 10 of those years. I also chaired the academic accountability committee when I was a member of the legislature. Serving others to improve Arizona’s education system is integral to increasing academic outcomes. That’s why I have undertaken multiple service initiatives.”

On the first day upon returning to office, Horne removed a bureaucratic delay dating to the prior administration and approved payments to schools and tutors who were owed a total of $22,234,151.48 from the second fiscal quarter of 2022. Horne also approved nearly 25,000 overdue requests from parents in the Empowerment Scholarship Account program.

The department also paid more than 1,500 tutors who had gone months without a paycheck and paid a small school that had explored getting a bank loan to cover expenses because their state payments had been delayed.

With the legislative session underway, Horne repeatedly expressed his support for a bill that would give Arizona teachers a $10,000 raise, putting Arizona in the top 10 of states for starting salaries.

Horne noted with some dismay that the National Education Association issued a statement about the importance of raising teacher salaries but the Arizona teacher’s union and a number of Democrats in the legislature opposed the bill. Horne believes these kinds of questions should be bipartisan.

Summer means no school session, but the work of the department continues with efforts to get rid of red tape in schools.

For example, each year, federal law requires schools to file a Comprehensive Needs Assessment explaining the tools and strategies needed to improve academic performance. Horne has directed that requirement to be reduced from a massive 168 questions to 20 questions.

The department is also implementing a significantly updated tool for the yearly Kindergarten Entry Assessment (KEA) pilot program. It reduces administration time by more than 80 percent, permitting rapid identification of critical student needs. Now teachers will be able to spend more time on classroom instruction.

This change aligns well with the department’s renewed emphasis on service by providing more on-site school improvement teams statewide.

Horne noted that prior to returning to office this year, the department merely judged the performance of schools, but did not send teams to the field to help schools get better. He immediately reinstated the School Improvement Teams. The department also delivers updated and practical training on leadership and discipline practices and offers technical assistance in multiple program areas.

With the Superintendent’s pledge to root out elements of Critical Race Theory, and serve educators who wish to spend valuable instruction time on academic as opposed to ideologies, Horne established the Empower Hotline.

This service discovered that a school district had a training program for teachers that clearly states that certain Americans are ‘living under a system of white supremacy.’ That program was eliminated.

Other concerns raised include a spreadsheet distributed in a district with a list of pronouns chosen by students. The email and attached file clearly show the school withholding information from parents.

In another district, a lunch time Gay-Straight Alliance Club included the distribution of emancipation paperwork, which a parent only knew about because parents found it in their student’s backpack. Both are examples of activity contrary to Arizona law.

In Tucson, the department restored in-person teacher certification assistance and work is underway to provide similar services in other Arizona counties.

Also in southern Arizona, Horne announced the completion of $3.6 million in broadband projects to bring Internet fiber connectivity to Santa Cruz County. The department has brought a total of approximately $160M in fiber construction projects to schools and libraries in rural areas through the federal E-Rate Program in the past six years.

Horne concluded, “Arizona’s educators and support staff do tremendous work to ensure excellence in the classroom. This department is ready to serve. I will always be committed to my promise to deliver excellent service.”

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