by Daniel Stefanski | Jan 2, 2024 | Education, News
By Daniel Stefanski |
The holiday season didn’t bring holly and jolly to the ongoing feud between Arizona’s Democrat Governor and Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction.
In the days leading up to Christmas, Governor Katie Hobbs and Superintendent Tom Horne exchanged press releases over their dueling perceptions of the due date of the quarterly Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) report.
On December 21, the Director of the Governor’s Office of Strategic Planning & Budgeting, Sarah Brown, transmitted a letter to Horne, asking him to send the FY 2024 Quarter 1 Report for the ESA Program to statutory recipients by the following day. Brown opined that this “late report comes after a number of stories showing a concerning lack of accountability and transparency in the ESA program.”
Governor Hobbs posted a short statement to her “X” account, asserting that “Arizonans deserve to know how their taxpayer dollars are being spent. We need true accountability and transparency in the ESA voucher program.”
Horne wasted no time in responding to the latest attack on the program he guides and stewards, saying, “The Department of Education has been in contact with the Governor’s Office for nearly three weeks regarding this issue. They are fully aware that we are preparing the report she has requested. Nothing is being withheld.”
Brown also accused Horne of essentially mismanaging dollars in his budget, highlighting the Department of Education’s spending of “millions of dollars advertising the program even with the escalating costs that threaten to crowd out critical spending from the State budget.”
The superintendent’s marketing efforts for the ESA program were practically mandated and empowered earlier this year with the passage of the State’s budget between Governor Katie Hobbs and Legislative Republicans, when freshman Senator Janae Shamp reportedly earmarked $10 million for school choice advertising at the Arizona Department of Education. On August 24, Shamp responded to a critical piece about the targeted funds, writing, “Families are not getting the REAL facts. So called ‘reporting’ by the left and their media henchmen fails to acknowledge the true winners of this money well spent…THE KIDS! Now they will receive education that meets their personal needs.”
Before Shamp’s allocation, Horne had executed marketing campaigns for the ESA program, though at far less expense than the levels he obtained after the latest State budget.
The Governor’s Office also pointed out the revelations of ESA dollars being used to fund “ski passes and luxury car driving lessons.” In his response to this criticism, Horne retorted that those “frivolous ESA spending approvals occurred under the administration of the Governor’s friend, Kathy Hoffman.” He added that his department had “reviewed more than 15,000 ESA applications, rejecting thousands that were incomplete in the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2024 alone.”
As he closed his statement, the Republican schools chief wished his readers a “Merry Christmas!”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Daniel Stefanski | Dec 18, 2023 | Education, News
By Daniel Stefanski |
Arizona’s schools chief is continuing his quest to make state schools safer.
Last week, Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne released a number of recommendations from his administration’s task force meant to strengthen school safety.
Superintendent Horne said, “The safety of our schools is of the utmost importance. There is no greater nightmare than to contemplate a maniac shooting up a school and it’s essential that everything is done to increase campus safety. This committee has done remarkable work and now the task is to get these proposed changes implemented so we can make the state’s school safety program even stronger.”
A handful of the recommendations from the task force involve changing state laws, which the Arizona Legislature would have to approve through legislation and then the governor would have to sign. Those changes are as follows:
- Removing barriers to allowing retired law enforcement officers to work as School Resource Officers.
- Allowing for the school safety program to pay for School Safety Officers and school psychologists in addition to the other positions currently included in the program.
- Adding increased mental health training to focus on adolescent mental health issues, education privacy law and civil rights matters.
- Adding language to the law requiring attention to school architecture, ingress and egress and safety technology and training.
The task force also recommended steps for the Arizona Department of Education to enact within its statutory responsibilities, including the following:
- Reviewing and providing additional safety training and materials.
- Hosting an annual conference for educators, law enforcement and mental health professionals.
- Pursuing partnerships with entities that can help encourage workforce development in the social work and mental health sectors.
According to Horne’s office, his task force “consists of educators, legislators, representatives of mental health professions, law enforcement, and other community leaders.”
With the next legislative session just weeks away, the recommendations from the school safety task force may come at a perfect time to put the issue in front of lawmakers returning to work in January. Since school safety is a priority of Horne and his administration, he and his team will surely be lobbying for these changes and attempting to work with legislators from both sides of the aisle as they attempt to keep Arizona boys and girls safe at their schools.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Daniel Stefanski | Nov 28, 2023 | Education, News
By Daniel Stefanski |
Arizona’s schools chief is literally turning his back to antisemitism.
Earlier this month, the Arizona Department of Education posted a picture on “X” of Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne at a recent Board of Regents meeting with the caption, “Superintendent Horne will not tolerate antisemitism. When protestors started speaking in support of a terrorist organization at the Arizona Board of Regents meeting, he turned his back to hatred.”
This gesture from Horne follows a recent press conference he hosted to “denounce antisemitic and anti-American materials provided by two organizations at a high school club event that made Jewish students feel unsafe.” The high school where this action occurred at was Desert Mountain High School in Scottsdale.
Horne minced no words in alerting the public to the dangers to students by the presence of these materials at this school – or any school in the state, saying, “The materials presented to these students were profoundly antisemitic in particular and anti-American, in nature. Some of the material states that ‘Palestinians have been subject to killings, torture, rape, abuse, and more for over 75 years.’ This is a ‘blood libel’ similar to the blood libels used in the Middle Ages to get people to go out and kill random Jewish people.”
In an interview with a national outlet, Horne explained why this issue has been so important to take a stand on, saying, “All of my extended family were killed in the Holocaust. So I grew up with just my parents and my sister. No grandparents, no nieces and nephews, no uncles or aunts. They were all killed. So when I see signs of antisemitism developing in the United States, you can imagine it’s something that affects me personally.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Daniel Stefanski | Nov 24, 2023 | Education, News
By Daniel Stefanski |
Earlier this month, Arizona’s schools chief took a stand against antisemitic and anti-American materials at state schools.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne held a press conference to “denounce antisemitic and anti-American materials provided by UNICEF and Amnesty International at a high school club event that made Jewish students feel unsafe.”
The reason for Horne’s press conference, according to the release from the Arizona Department of Education, was due to tips from “several community members who had learned of antisemitic and anti-American materials being presented at a lunchtime club sponsored by those organizations…at Desert Mountain High School in Scottsdale.”
Horne minced no words in alerting the public to the dangers to students by the presence of these materials at this school – or any school in the state, saying, “The materials presented to these students were profoundly antisemitic in particular and anti-American , in nature. Some of the material states that ‘Palestinians have been subject to killings, torture, rape, abuse, and more for over 75 years.’ This is a ‘blood libel’ similar to the blood libels used in the Middle Ages to get people to go out and kill random Jewish people.”
The Republican superintendent pointed out the failure of these materials to document the truth of the horrific attacks in southern Israel on October 7. He said, “In none of this propaganda is there any reference to what happened on October 7. The fact that 1,400 civilians were murdered does not begin to describe to horror of what Hamas did. They went house to house in the neighborhoods, machine gunning entire families, and sometimes killing fathers in front of their children and children in front of their fathers. They copied the Nazi technique of setting fire to houses so that people would burn to death, or if they came out of the fire house, killed them upon their exit. The actions of Hamas are a repetition of what happened during World War II. Yet the materials make no mention of October 7.”
Horne shared an email he had sent to each district superintendent across the state, asking that their schools refrain from inviting UNICEF and Amnesty International and soliciting any materials from these two groups to campuses. The schools chief warned that “giving aid and comfort to terrorists is contrary to US law,” and that the groups and their literature “generate antisemitism among impressionable young people.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Daniel Stefanski | Nov 22, 2023 | Education, News
By Daniel Stefanski |
More dollars are coming to Arizona state schools.
Last week, Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne announced that his office would be issuing a $10 million grant “for public schools to purchase art supplies.”
The Art Consumable Grant, according to the Arizona Department of Education’s release, will deliver funds to “successful district and charter school applicants…to purchase arts consumables such as paints, brushes, sheet music, dance props, theatrical costumes, and much more.” Selected schools will receive $1,000 for every full-time arts teacher.
In a statement that accompanied the announcement, Superintendent Horne said, “I am a passionate supporter of arts education; it is an essential part of any successful school. There are studies that show learning how to play stringed instruments helps students do better in math, so there are both aesthetic and academic benefits to arts education. I am pleased to encourage schools to apply for these funds to support arts education throughout Arizona.”
The Department encouraged Arizona district and charter schools to apply for the Art Consumable Grant. Schools have until December 31, 2023 to submit their applications for these funds.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
