Arizona superintendent presents 15-point plan, urges more school resource officers and higher teacher pay

Tom Horne, Arizona superintendent of public instruction, told the House Education Committee on Jan. 17 that his Department of Education is pursuing 15 initiatives to raise academic achievement and urged the Legislature to fund more school resource officers and higher teacher pay.

Horne opened his “state of the state for education” presentation by describing a recent school incident in Tucson in which a newly hired school safety officer arrested an adult who had a firearm and a knife. “Think of the unimaginable tragedy that would have occurred if that school resource officer had not been there,” Horne said, adding that the officer had been on the job only two weeks and was paid with newly available funds. He said the event illustrated the “crucial importance of expanding the school safety program.”

The superintendent summarized the department’s 15 initiatives, emphasizing two he called especially urgent: recruitment and retention of teachers, and safety. On teacher pay he said lawmakers should renew Proposition 123 and increase distributions from the state land trust and deliver money “directly to the teachers and not through the districts.” He described a prior episode when raises were routed through districts and teachers did not receive the full increase.

Horne linked teacher staffing shortfalls to discipline and workplace conditions in classrooms. “If they see one kid get away with things, they all start getting away with things,” he said, arguing that administrators must back teachers on discipline to prevent classrooms from becoming “anarchic.”

On academic interventions, Horne said the department used approximately $40 million in federal funds to provide free tutoring; he told lawmakers the funding ran out sooner than expected because the federal rules forced some tutoring onto private vendors that charged more than schools. “The federal government set a deadline … after that deadline, we could no longer have the schools do it. It had to be through private companies,” Horne said, explaining why the program ended abruptly for some families.

Horne described an experimental tutoring result and an investment in a Khan Academy program the department calls Conmigo — an artificial-intelligence tutoring tool. He said the department paid $1.5 million to cover the first 100,000 students and estimated that subsequent access could cost about $25 per student per year. “It does not substitute for teachers. It helps them,” he said, describing the tool as a scalable supplement to one-on-one tutoring.

On standards and English-language instruction, Horne urged strict enforcement of the state’s structured English immersion requirement passed by voter initiative in 2000, and said data show immersion outperformed bilingual approaches in measures including proficiency and later income. He also urged restoration of a graduation testing requirement and said Senator Kavanaugh had introduced a bill to require students to pass a high-school test or be certified in career-technical education before graduating.

During question time, members pressed Horne on the tutoring cutoff and the department’s planning. Representative Symechak relayed a constituent who said her child lost access to a tutoring vendor and that families were not warned. Horne said the short notice was caused by federal deadlines and higher private vendor costs and repeated that the department had reallocated $40 million that had been reclaimed from ineffective prior programs.

Horne also reported progress on other initiatives: improving low-performing schools through targeted “improvement teams,” leadership training that the department says has trained about 2,900 principals and leaders, an expanded career-technical education effort aligned with employers through the Arizona Education Economic Commission, and reductions in paperwork—from a 168-question needs assessment down to 20 questions, he said.

Members asked for more detail on teacher preparation coursework the superintendent said he had reviewed with the Board of Regents and on the department’s plans to measure results. Horne agreed to provide a report he said he prepared for the Board of Regents listing teacher-prep courses the department feels should be replaced by more practical instruction.

Why it matters: Lawmakers will decide whether to provide the additional funding Horne requested for teacher pay, tutoring, screening tests and other priorities. Horne framed his agenda as focusing departmental resources on direct help to schools rather than judgmental oversight, and he tied several proposals to measurable outcomes such as proficiency gains and graduation standards.

What’s next: Horne left the committee with an offer to provide the members the report on teacher-preparation coursework and to supply lists of schools impacted by federal grants. Committee members said they would follow up with specific budget questions as appropriations deliberations begin.