Arizona’s Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction gave an update on the new Empower Hotline from the state’s Department of Education.
On Thursday, Superintendent Tom Horne provided an update on the Empower Hotline program and elaborated on some of the concerns that his staff had fielded since the March launch. According to the Department, “the Empower Hotline allows parents to report inappropriate content being taught that detract from teaching academic standards. These include those that focus on race or ethnicity, rather than individuals and merit, promoting gender ideology, social emotional learning, or inappropriate sexual content.”
In a release sent after the update, the Department made clear that complaints submitted through the Empower Hotline have revealed potential violations to state law and demonstrate that elements of Critical Race Theory are present in the public school system.
Horne issued a statement in conjunction with the press release, saying, “Despite those in ideological groups and some in the media that propagate the urban myth that CRT is not a part of the school system, we have evidence from the empower hotline, that there is enough CRT in our schools to constitute a problem, though it is obviously not universal. We also have evidence that schools have put systems in place to hide or attempt to hide critical personal information from parents about their child. This is in direct violation of Arizona law, A.R.S. §1-602.”
The Arizona Department of Education pointed to three examples of vetted concerns brought to staff through the Empower Hotline. The first came from Mesa, where the Department shared that “a teacher reported through the hotline that the Mesa school district has a training program for teachers that clearly states that certain Americans are ‘living under a system of white supremacy.’” Horne added, “That is a divisive and bigoted statement that has no place in education. We are individuals, entitled to be judged by what we know, what we can do, our character, and not the color of our skin. To its credit, Mesa is in discussion with the Department about this.”
The other two examples occurred in the Catalina Foothills School District and in the Chandler Unified School District. In the Catalina Foothills instance, the Department revealed that a concern was raised regarding “a spreadsheet distributed in this school district with a list of pronouns chosen by students. The email and attached file clearly show the school withholding information from parents contrary to A.R.S. §1-602.”
In Chandler, the Department reported that “a lunch time Gay-Straight Alliance Club was created to discuss gender issues but also included the distribution of emancipation paperwork, which a parent only knew about because parents found it in their students backpack. Both of the above are examples of activity contrary to Arizona law.”
Since assuming office in January, Horne has worked tirelessly to shed light on what children are being taught and exposed to in their schools, giving interested parents the transparency that many have demanded in increasing numbers over the past few years. Horne stated, “Since its inception earlier this year, ADE has been compiling information regarding inappropriate activity occurring in Arizona schools through the Empower Hotline. These complaints have come not just from concerned parents but also from teachers. When parents saw during COVID what students were being taught on their laptop, they were outraged by CRT content, and went to school board meetings, where some were treated rudely. The Employer Hotline directs them to a method to communicate their concerns.”
The Department also communicated that the Hotline had received 30,000 crank calls and emails since its inception in March, promising that “all legitimate complaints received through the Empower Hotline will continue to be accepted and investigated.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Advocates of Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA) are responding to recent attacks on the program.
Last week, Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs launched a political assault on ESAs, reacting to a recent memo from the Arizona Department of Education, which detailed the expected cost for the upcoming fiscal year. Hobbs tweeted, “the school voucher program in its current form is not sustainable, and Republican legislators need to explain why they are forcing this runaway spending on Arizona taxpayers. We need to bring an end to this out of control and unaccountable spending, and I will work tirelessly to make that happen.”
The first-year governor has been working tirelessly to assuage angry members of her own party since she agreed to a negotiated state budget last month with Republican leaders of the Arizona House and Senate. Though she railed against ESAs on the campaign trail and leading up to the budget compromise, Hobbs signed the package that left the historic school choice expansion untouched and uncapped, leaving Democrats and interest groups opposed to ESAs to question her commitment to adhere to such a prominent platform of her administration.
Proponents of Arizona’s ESA program were ready for Hobbs’ – and other Democrats’ – attack, publishing national and local opinion pieces to assure people of the facts. Jason Bedrick and Corey DeAngelis, two national leaders of the school choice movement, wrote a commentary for the Wall Street Journal, entitled “School Choice Saves Arizona Money.” The advocates clarified the cost for ESAs in Fiscal Year 2024 ($900 million) “is barely 2% of total Arizona state spending of $80.5 billion in 2022. Arizona public schools spend about $14,000 per pupil, or $1.4 billion for 100,000 students. If the department’s enrollment projection is reached, school choice would serve roughly 8% of Arizona’s students for 6% of the $15 billion that Arizona will spend on public schools.”
— Wall Street Journal Opinion (@WSJopinion) June 7, 2023
They pointed to a report published by the Common Sense Institute, which found that “current enrollment in Arizona public district and charter schools combined is over 80,000 students below pre-pandemic projections,” saving Arizona $639 million.
A new report by the Common Sense Institute finds that “current enrollment in Arizona public district and charter schools combined is over 80,000 students below pre-pandemic projections,” producing a savings of $639 million.https://t.co/UaLbA7J6cw
Another opinion piece, written by Jon Gabriel for the Arizona Republic, stressed that “the critics of Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts keep claiming the program is too expensive. At the same time, they insist the state spend far, far more on education.” Gabriel highlights that “an ESA student is only allowed 90% what that student would receive in a traditional public school,” arguing that Democrats “are galled to see education funding going directly to students and parents instead of to bloated public school administrations and teachers’ unions.”
No, ESA's won't "bankrupt" the state. Democrats are just mad that education dollars aren't going to their political allies. https://t.co/Hv3WLYrSYF
Matthew Ladner took his defense of ESAs to Twitter to make a comparison with the Mesa Unified School Direct. He posted, “Mesa Unified was budgeted for $1.3 billion last year to educate 54,000 students. I’m having a hard time getting too excited about less money for 100,000 students. Let’s call ESA ‘a bargain for taxpayers.’”
Mesa Unified was budgeted for $1.3 billion last year to educate 54,000 students. I'm having a hard time getting too excited about less money for 100,000 students. Let's call ESA "a bargain for taxpayers."/3 pic.twitter.com/LwkXV6qVvm
Northern Arizona University (NAU) admitted that it purposefully admitted more Hispanic students in order to receive more federal funding.
The Department of Education (ED) rewards higher education institutions for having a certain racial makeup within their student population, called a “Hispanic-Serving Institution.”
In order to achieve HSI status, colleges or universities must have Hispanic students making up at least 25 percent of their full-time equivalent student population, as well as a significant number of students requiring needs-based financial aid.
NAU President José Luis Cruz Rivera said accomplishment of their HSI designation in 2020 was intentional in an interview last week with Diverse Issues in Higher Education.
“NAU applied for classification and then appointed key leadership to ensure we serve our Hispanic students well,” said Cruz Rivera. “It’s not just about meeting the number threshold, but rather about really carrying out our mission and supporting the success of our students.”
Hispanics aren’t the only racial group that NAU has prioritized. NAU pledged free tuition to Native Americans in November. In March 2021, NAU launched multiple initiatives totaling $1.3 million to increase the number of both Native American and Hispanic science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) graduates.
Following their HSI classification, NAU began to prioritize Hispanic students through their strategic plan, NAU 2025 – Elevating Excellence. These prioritizations include Hispanic-specific retention strategies concerning financial aid, mental health services, and community building; hiring and retention strategies to attract more Hispanic faculty; and faculty training to better understand Hispanic students.
HSI federal programming was reestablished in 2021 through an executive order by President Joe Biden: the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics (Initiative). The concept originated in 1990 under former President George H.W. Bush, but fell out of use in subsequent administrations until Biden was elected.
As part of the initiative, Biden established the Advisory Commission on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics. The commission convened in its inaugural meeting earlier this month.
Included in the 21-member commission are three Arizonans. One of them is NAU’s program director and teacher for its Arizona K12 Center, Juliana Urutubey.
Urutubey was named the 2021 National Teacher of the Year and the 2019 Chicanos por La Causa Esperanza Latina Teaching Award while working as an educator in Las Vegas, Nevada. Urutubey recently relocated to Phoenix and joined NAU’s Arizona Teacher Residency.
Chicanos por La Causa has been intertwined with several major controversial events in recent years, including a federal pandemic loan fraud investigation; membership with the Aspen Institute, the liberal think tank that played a major role in the cover-up of investigative reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop; and funding to pass propositions outlawing debt collection efforts and awarding in-state college tuition rates to illegal immigrants.
Another Arizonan on the commission is Anna Maria Chávez: President and CEO of the Arizona Community Foundation. Chávez was formerly the CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA; director of intergovernmental affairs, urban relations and community development/military affairs advisor, and deputy chief of staff for former Gov. Janet Napolitano; and several Clinton administration positions, including legal counsel for the Federal Highway Administration, attorney advisor in the Office of the Counsel to the President, senior policy advisor to former Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater and SBA Administrator Aida Alvaraz.
Chávez has also served as Executive Vice President and Chief Growth Officer for the National Council on Aging; in June 2020, she became the executive director and CEO of the National School Boards Association (NSBA) and currently serves as an ex-officio director on its Board of Directors; in 2021, Chávez was appointed as the inaugural chief impact officer of Encantos and president of their online presence. Encantos investors include Kapor Capital, Steve Case’s Revolution Rise of the Rest Fund, Chelsea Clinton’s Metrodora Capital, and L’ATTITUDE Ventures.
The third is Teresa Leyba Ruiz, who became the senior vice president and chief advocacy and programs officer for Education Forward Arizona (EFA) in April. Ruiz formerly served as the president of Glendale Community College (GCC), part of the Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD), having worked in various leadership roles with GCC for over a decade. Ruiz also participated in the Aspen Institute’s 2018-19 Presidential Fellows Program (as mentioned earlier in this article, the Aspen Institute played a major role in covering up the Biden laptop scandal).
EFA received millions from AmeriCorps, the Arizona Department of Education, and Helios Education Foundation in recent years. They also received funding from a wide swath of major entities, including MCCCD and NAU: Alliance Bank of Arizona, Arizona State University, Bank of America, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, Maricopa County, the Salt River Project, State Farm, University of Arizona, and Wells Fargo. Leaders from a number of these entities serve on EFA’s board of directors.
Per their agenda, the commission discussed ways they could advance educational equity in K-12 and higher education using Biden’s budget, reviewed federal data on Hispanics, and discussed means of strengthening career pathways for Hispanic advancement.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
An Arizona Democrat leader is receiving pushback for his selective cropping of a memo from the Arizona Department of Education.
On Tuesday, Christine Accurso, the Executive Director of the ESA Program for Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne’s administration, submitted “the annual estimate of the amount required to fund empowerment scholarship accounts” to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee for the 2024 fiscal year.
Accurso’s estimate concluded “that the projected enrollment by the end of Fiscal Year 2024 will be at 100,000 students with roughly $900,000,000 necessary to fund them.”
Andrés Cano, the Democrat Leader in the Arizona House of Representatives, tweeted out the memo – up until the point where Accurso shared the price tag of the program. He added. “without reform, Empowerment Scholarship Accounts will bankrupt our state & our public schools.”
BREAKING: The AZ Dept. of Education is predicting that the state's GOP taxpayer-funded private school voucher program will grow to 100,000 students in '24 at a whopping $900M per year!
Without reform, Empowerment Scholarship Accounts will bankrupt our state & our public… pic.twitter.com/bn4fiuNWBk
Cano left out the last paragraph of the memo, where Accurso wrote: “We have made this projection with the help of our Chief Auditor, John Ward who conducted the analysis. It is important to note that we currently have 57,886 students in the program. For budgeting purposes, it is also important to note that many of the students that are enrolling now are coming from the public school system, which in the end saves the state money because the empowerment scholarship accounts are funded at a lower percentage than the state aid for a pupil in the public school system.”
One of the top school choice advocates in the country, Corey DeAngelis, highlighted the omission from Cano, tweeting, “hey why did you cut off the end of the letter.” DeAngelis included an image of the entire memo.
— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) May 31, 2023
He also asked, “how much would those same students cost in the government schools?”
how much would those same students cost in the government schools?
— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) May 31, 2023
Jason Bedrick, a Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, also weighed in, stating, “$900M is about 1% of the state’s $80.5 billion budget – and the ESA costs about half as much per pupil as the public school system. The sky isn’t falling.”
$900M is about 1% of the state’s $80.5 billion budget — and the ESA costs about half as much per pupil as the public school system.
Grant Botma, a best-selling author also shared his thoughts on Cano’s charge, posting, “The Arizona Auditor General report shows the public school system spends $10,729 per pupil. The $900,000,000 divided by 100,000 from your image is $9000 per student. That is a $1,729 savings. How would that “bankrupt our state”?
The Arizona Auditor General report shows the public school system spends $10,729 per pupil (https://t.co/xyd6BwG1dv). The $900,000,000 divided by 100,000 from your image is $9000 per student. That is a $1,729 savings. How would that "bankrupt our state"?
Members from both sides of the political aisle at the Arizona Legislature quickly piled onto Cano’s controversial tweet. On the Republican side, Representative Jacqueline Parker commented, “This is GREAT! But not enough yet. $900 million is a drop in the bucket to the other $7+BILLION spent on the useless indoctrination camps that are ‘government schools’. Until ESA’s are pulling at LEAST $5 Billion from government schools, our job is not yet finished.”
This is GREAT! But not enough yet. $900 million is a drop in the bucket to the other $7+BILLION spent on the useless indoctrination camps that are “government schools”. Until ESA’s are pulling at LEAST $5 Billion from government schools, our job is not yet finished. https://t.co/IFoomnj7A8
— Rep. Jacqueline Parker (@electjacqparker) May 31, 2023
Representative Joseph Chaplik tweeted, “Simply not true. Just like the state doesn’t fund K-12 enough. This same lie is getting old fast!”
Simply not true. Just like the state doesn’t fund K-12 enough. This same lie is getting old fast! https://t.co/UNiq7namZo
— Rep. Joseph Chaplik 🇺🇸 (@JosephChaplik) May 31, 2023
On the Democrat side, Senator Priya Sundareshan wrote, “During the last few months we were getting estimates that the cost to the state of the universal voucher program had increased to $600M, instead of the $30M originally promised when they passed it last year. Now we see it has already grown to $900M. How high will it climb??”
During the last few months we were getting estimates that the cost to the state of the universal voucher program had increased to $600M, instead of the $30M originally promised when they passed it last year.
— AZ Sen. Priya Sundareshan (@priya4az) May 31, 2023
Twitter provided a community note to provide context for Cano’s tweet: “Cano has cropped out the portion of the letter which explains how this program saves the state money. The cropped out portion directly counters his claim that this program will ‘bankrupt our state.’”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Arizona Republicans continue to take proactive steps to protect women’s sports.
Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne recently filed a legal response in the case of Jane Doe, et al. v Thomas C. Horne, et al., asking the federal court to grant his side “an additional 90 days to compile evidence as Plaintiffs did at leisure, and then deny the Motion for Preliminary Injunction.” Horne is seeking to defend an Arizona law that prohibits biological males from competing in women’s and girls’ athletic events at state public schools, colleges, and universities. That law was SB 1165, which was signed by former Arizona Governor Doug Ducey on March 30, 2022.
Superintendent Horne is defending state law against politically driven out of state law firms. Biological males should not be playing competitive sports with biological females. Thank you @icons_women athletes for joining us and fighting for Title IX. https://t.co/adSYXBa2cG
— Arizona Department of Education (@azedschools) May 24, 2023
Horne’s action comes weeks after Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen and House Speaker Ben Toma filed a Motion to Intervene in the proceedings. According to the Senate Republican’s press release, “On April 17, 2023, plaintiffs represented by a radical organization filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to stop the law from being enforced in Arizona,” and “Attorney General Kris Mayes is not defending the constitutionality of the law.”
The transfer of power from Republican Mark Brnovich to Democrat Kris Mayes in the Attorney General’s Office has forced the Republican-led Arizona Legislature into the lead role when it comes to litigation of federal and state lawsuits. Both Petersen and Toma figure to take many more legal actions over the next year and a half with Democrats occupying the Governor’s and Attorney General’s Office in the Grand Canyon State.
In his most-recent filing to the court, Horne states, “The disruption and the unfairness caused to others by Plaintiffs insisting on unfairly competing against biological girls is undeniable. If the preliminary injunction were to be granted, a number of schools would permit biological males/transgender females to compete against girls. This would be devastating to girls who hope to excel but cannot because they are competing against biological boys and being deprived of scholarships. “
The Republican Superintendent, in his second stint as the state’s top educator, issued the following statement when announcing his filing: “I have sympathy for anybody who feels trapped in the wrong body, but I don’t believe that biological boys should be playing against girls. If there really are no differences between males and females then all sports would already be co-ed.”
Last Wednesday, Horne had joined Marshi Smith, a former University of Arizona swimming star, at a press conference to announce the court filing and to highlight a letter sent to the NCAA from Marsh and dozens of other female athletes in March 2022.
Tune in to Superintendent Horne and women athletes from @icons_women speak about the lawsuit defending Arizona's ban on biological boys playing girls' sports. https://t.co/PyACMfQ3mg
— Arizona Department of Education (@azedschools) May 24, 2023
That letter, also co-signed by Riley Gaines, expresses the ladies’ “anguish” as they watched the 2022 NCAA Swim & Dive Championships earlier in the month. They write that they “feel we are witnessing irrevocable damage to a sport that has transformed our own identities for the better,” charging that “the NCAA has successfully failed everyone by allowing Lia Thomas to compete directly with women.” The female athletes state that they “are eager and willing to discuss directly with the NCAA potential steps it can implement to create new solutions for the expanding athletic family.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Arizona Republican legislators have finally had enough of Democrat Attorney General Kris Mayes’ continuing assault on the state’s historic Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA) program.
On Thursday, a bicameral group of Republican lawmakers, led by Senate President Warren Petersen and House Speaker Ben Toma, transmitted a letter to Mayes, demanding that she “publicly retract (her) patently false statements attacking ESAs and impugning the motives of thousands of parents that use ESAs to provide the best education for their children.”
🚨BREAKING🚨 Legislative Leaders Demand AG Mayes Retract False Statements Regarding ESAs & to Use State Resources to Serve Interests of Arizonans, Not Politics!
“Parents have spoken and the Legislature has enacted ESAs into law. Your job, as an executive branch official, is to… pic.twitter.com/QgLvDcvsGY
— Arizona House Republicans (@AZHouseGOP) May 25, 2023
The accusations and demands in the letter stem from a recent television interview Mayes gave where she “claimed that ‘there are no controls’ on the ESA program, ‘no accountability,’ that ‘they’ (presumably parents) are ‘spending hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money,’ that this ‘needs to be looked at,’ and that it’s (her) ‘responsibility to do that’ as Arizona’s ‘top law enforcement officer.’”
The coalition of eight legislators (Senators T.J. Shope, Sonny Borrelli, and Sine Kerr, and Representatives Travis Grantham, Leo Biasiucci, and Teresa Martinez – along with Petersen and Toma) share their alarm “that the state’s chief legal officer would make such outlandish claims that are refuted by Arizona law.” They write that “Numerous statutory provisions in the ESA laws expressly require accountability, oversight, and investigations when appropriate. See, e.g., A.R.S. § 15-2403 (requiring, among other things, the Arizona Department of Education to conduct or contract for ‘random, quarterly and annual audits’ of ESAs ‘as needed to ensure compliance’, authorizing the Department to remove parents or qualified students if they fail to comply with the contract or applicable laws, rules or orders, and enabling the State Board of Education to refer cases ‘of substantial misuse of monies’ and suspected cases of fraud to the Attorney General).”
Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne’s administration has been amenable to referring such cases of fraud or misuse of monies to the Attorney General as directed under law. In a tweet on March 1, the Arizona Department of Education responded to an account alleging misuse and / or fraud of ESA funds (in a post that has since been deleted), saying, “Please provide your relatives name, and we would like to refer her to Attorney General Kris Mayes. ESA dollars should only be spent on education.”
Please provide your relatives name, and we would like to refer her to Attorney General @KrisMayes. ESA dollars should only be spent on education. https://t.co/K88q32oTqN
— Arizona Department of Education (@azedschools) March 2, 2023
The Republicans warn Mayes that her rhetoric and threats are way beyond the statutory scope of her office, writing, “You have not cited a shred of evidence to suggest that either the Arizona Department of Education or the State Board of Education—both of whom you represent—have failed to comply with their statutory obligations, and there is no basis to believe that these agencies will disregard or refuse to follow the law in the future. And while you have a statutory responsibility to investigate matters that are referred to you, the Legislature did not authorize and does not condone the selective targeting or roving investigations of ESA parents.”
They also raise the issue of “ethics” that will be sure to catch the attention of the intended audience at Central Avenue and just north of McDowell. Over the past few years, then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs weaponized the Arizona State Bar and ethics rules against then-Attorney General Mark Brnovich, her political rival at the time, giving a very low standard of precedent for a reprisal against the state’s newest prosecutor. Hobbs didn’t just file bar complaints against Brnovich; she leveled the charges at several attorneys in his office over political disagreements between the two. In their letter to Mayes, the legislators write: “Of course, Arizona’s Ethical Rules do not tolerate the initiation of criminal proceedings absent probable cause to believe that any parent has committed a crime. See Arizona Ethical Rule 3.8 (listing the special ethical responsibilities of a prosecutor). Further, it would raise ethical questions if a government attorney were to publicly insinuate that a current client is engaging in misconduct with no factual basis. See, e.g., Arizona Ethical Rule 1.7 (imposing a duty of loyalty to a current client).”
The lawmakers end their letter with an appeal for Mayes to conform with the expectations and values of their shared constituents across the state, stating, “Arizonans expect the state’s chief legal officer to refrain from engaging in politically-motivated pursuits, threats, or lawsuits, and to make public statements that align with Arizona law and the duties of your office.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
