Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Republican candidates Kimberly Yee (R) and Tom Horne (R) joined Ted Simons as a part of “Candidates in Conversation” to discuss education issues. The Superintendent of Public Instruction is the state’s top education official responsible for overseeing Arizona’s public school system and directing the state’s Department of Education.
Yee said that under Horne’s leadership, the Department of Education in Arizona is in “complete chaos”.
“What we need in executive leadership in the Department of Education. Someone with that fiscal hawk eye to make sure the money is going exactly where it should be,” Yee said.
Horne believes that the state of education in Arizona is the opposite of what Yee claims. Horne says that through his overseeing of the office, they have expanded career technical education among other things.
Both candidates agreed that education needs to be better funded in Arizona, including raising teachers’ salaries.
When it comes to getting more money allocated to education in Arizona, Horne says that he is making enough noise to pull focus to this issue. Additionally when it comes to addressing the teacher shortage in Arizona.
“I published and sent out in a press release a study we did that schools that spend more money on teacher salaries and less on administration did better academically,” Horne said.
Yee says that under her proposed vision or the office, she would also work to address the teacher shortage.
“My vision for this issue is to make sure that at the Department of Education we have mentor teachers who are ready and in place to help those younger teachers as they navigate the first few important years in those classrooms,” Yee said.
When it comes to the topic of Diversity, Equity and inclusion, also known as DEI, Horne says that he is “fighting very hard in the classrooms against critical race theory and DEI”.
Yee has sent a cease and desist letter to Horne on the basis of claims that he has made that Yee previously served on a DEI committee for the National Treasurer’s Association. Yee has called Horne’s statement a “lie”.
