For immediate release: August 7, 2023
Contact: [email protected]
 

Horne: Governor’s ESA cost alarms unfounded
Independent analysis shows program will save tax dollars

PHOENIX – Arizona schools chief Tom Horne says an independent analysis of how much the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program will cost shows the dire predictions made by Governor Hobbs and other opponents of the program are incorrect.

After studying a detailed review by education analyst Dr. Matthew Ladner, Ph.D, regarding the various sources of school funding and how ESA funding impacts the state budget Horne offered these comments:

Horne stated, “I agree with Dr. Ladner that the cost of the ESA program will never be $943 million for reasons which I will explain. But even if it were, that would be only about one percent of the fiscal 2022 state budget of $80.5 billion.

Here are the reasons the cost will never be anything like $943 million.

Taxpayers pay both state and local taxes. Combined they contribute about $13,000 per student for every student in public school. If a student leaves a public school for a private school, and obtains a payment from ESA of $7200, that is a savings of about $6000 per student to the taxpayers.

If the student was never in a public school but was already in a private school when the ESA program was adopted, there is still a benefit to the state for the following reasons: many students in private schools are beneficiaries of the tax credit available for contributors to the student’s tuition. If they choose to take the $7200 from the ESA program, they have to give up that tax credit. This increases revenues to the state, because the tax liability that previously was erased by the tax credit now has to be paid to the state.

Dr. Ladner has studied the issue thoroughly and without political bias. His analysis should be read to reassure taxpayers the ESA program saves tax dollars and is sustainable.”

For immediate release: August 2, 2023
Contact: [email protected]
 

AZED holds first School Safety Task Force meeting
Focus on integrating law enforcement and social work for improved safety

PHOENIX – Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne convened the first School Safety Task Force today with a focus on getting more armed officers in schools in concert with social workers to protect Arizona’s schoolchildren, educators, and staff.

Horne stated, “Protecting the lives of our children is one of the most important issues we face. We hope that the School Safety Task Force will work to increase the number of law enforcement officers and social workers in schools as well as using our role in Career and Technical Education to encourage more people to consider law enforcement as a profession.”

He added, “I am grateful for all of the educators, law enforcement professionals, community leaders and both Democrat and Republican elected officials who have come together in this vital, bipartisan effort.”

In the meeting, department staff reported that funding for School Resource Officers (SROs) has been utilized to expand the number of SROs from 190 in the previous administration to 301 currently. In addition, 522 social workers and counselors have been funded.

Among the challenges posed to the task force are the need for additional counselors, social workers and law enforcement officers to address staffing shortages.

As work continues, the group will explore ways to integrate counselors and social workers into an effective School Safety Program, expand the definition of an SRO in accordance with state certification requirements so the applicant pool can be enlarged. Also, they will consider allowing schools to hire School Safety Officers (SSOs), review training models, and review Law Related Education.

The department is also working to expand its role in Career and Technical Education (CTE) to encourage students to consider public safety careers. Currently, 122 high schools12 CTE Districts statewide are training 72,292 students for careers in public safety.

For immediate release: August 1, 2023
Contact: [email protected]
 

Horne statement on AZ Homeland Security ESA data report

PHOENIX: State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne has issued the following statement in light of today’s release of an Arizona Department of Homeland Security cyber incident report:

Horne stated, “The Arizona Department of Education had no way to know the reason for the resignation of Christine Accurso other than her own statements in her letter of resignation. The department did not request this resignation; it was initiated by the former employee.

Under state administrative code (Sec. 2-5A-105), we are not permitted to release that letter and though we have asked permission from Mrs. Accurso to release it, she has declined. Instead, she has offered her own statement, which is below.”

Accurso stated, “Today (July 24, 2023) I tendered my resignation. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to get the ESA program on track and functioning. We trained and implemented a full staff of competent professionals who love the program and will carry it forward. I achieved much of what I set out to accomplish, but it is time to move on and pursue other opportunities to engage citizens, especially parents, to fight for school choice and other issues they believe in for the future of our state.”

Horne continued, “The DHS report confirms that the Department of Education notified ClassWallet of a data issue. We received a statement on July 14, from ClassWallet, which is below.”

ClassWallet CEO Jamie Rosenberg wrote: “The problem has been resolved. It was a permission setting error. Once discovered, we took immediate action and corrected the permission setting. Additionally, we performed a database search and concluded no other users were affected. Therefore, this is an isolated incident to a single user.”

Contact: [email protected]

Horne releases response to Governor’s letter regarding ESA data

PHOENIX – State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne has sent his response to Governor Katie Hobbs’ letter regarding ESA data. The letter is attached.

Horne disputes characterization of ESA program in governor’s memo
Issues reaction

PHOENIX - Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne has released the following statement in reaction to a governor’s memo regarding the Empowerment Scholarship Program:

Horne stated, “The Arizona Department of Education submitted a report to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) on May 30th outlining our estimates for the number of students that will participate in the ESA program by the end of the 2024 Fiscal Year. On May 31st, John Ward and I held a news conference where all aspects of these estimates, including the methodology, were thoroughly discussed and scrutinized by members of the news media. This contradicts the contention that ADE was anything less than transparent in this process.

The projections we released are, ironically, almost exactly the same as those in the governor’s memo. There is a difference of only .008 percent between their numbers and ours. Questioning our methodology and our commitment to integrity in this process is unfair and unnecessary.

ADE is managing the Empowerment Scholarship Account program in accordance with the law. Under my Democrat predecessor, the law was not strictly followed, and ESA funds were used for non-educational purposes. One of my first acts when I took office was to hire John Ward from the Arizona Auditor General as the internal auditor for the Department of Education. He is now the director of the ESA program, and he is as committed as I am to making sure the law is strictly enforced and every penny is spent on valid educational purposes.”

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For immediate release: July 24, 2023
Contact: [email protected]
 

Horne reacts to Attorney General Mayes statements regarding Empowerment Scholarship Accounts

PHOENIX – State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne has issued the following statement in response to today’s remarks by Attorney General Kris Mayes concerning the universal Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program.

Horne stated, “The Attorney General raised several issues, one of which centers on special education students. Under the ESA program, special education students receive the same funding as they would attending a public school.

In regards to the other concerns raised, under my Democrat predecessor as schools chief, the law was not strictly followed and ESA funds were used for non-educational purposes. One of my first acts when I took office was to hire from the Arizona Auditor General an internal auditor for the Department of Education. This person makes sure that every ESA transaction is conducted according to the law and all funding is used appropriately.

There have been significant protests against me from people who were used to the old lax system, but I am insisting that every law is strictly followed and that every penny of these funds is used for valid educational purposes.”

Horne statement on federal judge’s ruling on challenge to Arizona law prohibiting biological boys from participating in girls’ sports

PHOENIX - State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, the lone defendant in the lawsuit challenging Arizona’s law prohibiting biological boys from competing on girls’ interscholastic sports teams, issued the following statement in response to today’s preliminary injunction ruling by a federal judge.

Horne stated, “We will appeal this ruling. This will ultimately be decided by the United States Supreme Court, and they will rule in our favor.

The Plaintiffs in this case claimed that this only involves pre-pubescent boys, but we presented peer-reviewed studies that show pre-pubescent boys have an advantage over girls in sports.

The only expert presented by the Plaintiffs was a medical doctor who makes his money doing sex transition treatments on children and who has exactly zero peer-reviewed studies to support his opinion.”

For immediate release: July 18, 2023
Contact: [email protected]
 

Horne: AG Opinion on dual language is politically charged
Vows court challenge

PHOENIX – State Superintendent of Public Instruction and former Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne says the formal Opinion issued by current Attorney General Kris Mayes regarding the state’s Structured English Immersion law is ideologically driven.

Horne has reviewed the Opinion and is issuing the following detailed statement:

“It is surprising that the Attorney General evades the key issue, placing ideology over the law.

The Attorney General Opinion, in the second paragraph under background, recites that the voter passed, and voter protected initiative (Proposition 203) requires that English Language Learners be taught in English. A dual language program without waivers is an obvious violation of that to anybody who can read English. The Arizona Legislative Council reached that conclusion.

The Attorney General, for ideological reasons, wanted to rule in favor of the Democrat legislators who favor dual language. So, she refused to comment on whether a dual language program without waivers violates the voter protected initiative. She simply said that the State Board of Education has the power to adapt models under legislation. Neither the legislature nor the board has the power to overrule a voter approved initiative. Legislative Council found that dual language without a waiver does violate the initiative.

This will obviously be resolved in the courts. Until that happens, the State Board will not withhold funds. However, there are other remedies in the initiative for violation of its requirements. Any parent can sue a school or district that adopts dual language without waivers, and if the parent is successful, the school board, and the superintendent, and maybe the principal must leave office and cannot apply for their offices for five years. That will be a considerable incentive for school districts not to adopt dual language without waivers.”

For immediate release: July 13, 2023
Contact: [email protected]
 

English immersion opponents make false claims

PHOENIX – State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne has issued the following statement in response to claims made by opponents of the state’s voter-approved English immersion law.

He states, “Presenting approximately 3,000 signatures opposing English immersion is not an impressive feat. In 2000, more than 925,000 Arizonans – 63 percent of voters – approved Proposition 203, making English immersion the law. I supported the proposition at the time and I am sworn to uphold that law now.

I want to emphasize that we have not eliminated the fourth alternative passed by the State Board. We are only requiring waivers that are required in the initiative that was passed by the voters, and that the State Board has never sought to eliminate. 

The statements about the benefits of dual language by the advocates are anecdotal and are clearly contradicted by the real-world data. 

I will give both historical and current data on this amount.

Before I took office the first time in 2003, when they had bilingual education, Lisa Graham Keegan reported to the legislature an English proficiency rate of 4%.  The English proficiency rates for structured English immersion, by contrast for the last four years when I was last Superintendent (2007-2010), were an average of 31% each for those years.  For current data, we looked up the English proficiency rates for dual language for the four schools we were able to locate who have had dual language for more than the last few years. 

Another key sentence from the voter passed initiative, A.R.S. §15-752 states, “All children in Arizona public schools shall be taught English by being taught in English and all children shall be placed in English language classrooms”.

All the attendees rated our first structured English class for teachers this summer as 5 on a scale of 1-5.

This is consistent with our experience between 2003 and 2011. Teachers arrived at the training hostile because of ideology they had been taught, but by the end of the course were giving the structured English immersion teachers a standing ovation, with consistently high evaluations.”

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Violation of voter-approved English immersion law

PHOENIX – State schools superintendent Tom Horne has announced that public schools that are not teaching English Language Learners in English as required by state law risk losing funds for this legal violation.

Horne stated, “Proposition 203, the voter protected initiative passed in 2000, specified that classes for English Language Learners must be taught in English: ‘all children in Arizona public schools shall be taught English by being taught in English and all children shall be placed in English language classrooms.’ Dual language classes, typically taught for half of each day in Spanish, are an obvious violation of this initiative. A reduction in structured English immersion from four hours to two is okay, but the rest of the day must be spent in regular classrooms with the English-speaking students, not in classes taught in Spanish.”

While this conclusion is obvious based on the wording of the voter-passed initiative, Horne also cites a memorandum from the Arizona Legislative Council that concludes: “If the 50-50 dual language immersion model allows students to be taught subject matter in a language other than English as part of structured English immersion, the model likely violates Proposition 203.”

He added, “I want to emphasize that these rules only apply to students who have not yet attained proficiency in English. Once they attain English proficiency, we encourage dual language, or any other programs, that will cause them to be proficient in more than one language. I personally have studied six languages. Knowing multiple languages is beneficial and develops the brain in ways that help learn other subjects.”

He concluded, “State law (A.R.S. §15-756.08) provides a District found in violation by the state board loses its access to English Language Learners funds.  Another statute (A.R.S. §15-754) provides that any parent can sue any school board member or other elected office or administrator responsible for the violation and that person can be personally liable for damages and fees and cannot be indemnified by any third party.  Any official found liable shall be immediately removed from office and cannot hold a position for five years.”

The full letter from Horne and the Legislative Council Memo are attached.

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