By admin 
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Incumbent State Superintendent Tom Horne is facing a high-profile challenge from Arizona Treasurer Kimberly Yee. They debated Thursday night as the two compete in one of the most closely watched GOP primaries.
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One of the biggest issues was the state’s ESA school voucher program after an audit revealed a lack of oversight and wasteful spending.
The debate started with opening statements. “I’m the only one in statewide elected office who’s fighting for the normal against left-wing craziness … I am fighting hard against critical race theory,” Horne said.
“Arizona families deserve an education leader who will not only follow the law, protect school choice, and advance academic achievement, but also be able to bring that competence, not chaos, to the Department of Education,” Yee said.
Yee claimed a lot of chaos comes from the ESA voucher program. She compared her proposed reform to a health savings account.
“You swipe that card. You, as the customer, might think that contact lens solution might be authorized under that expenditure, but the system does not. So they will deny that purchase upon that swipe,” Yee said.
Horne acknowledged room for improvement after initially defending the voucher program.
“We do it the best we can now, but we’re very involved in artificial intelligence. And when that comes online, pursuant to it, the work that we’re doing, we will achieve perfection,” Horne said.
The two candidates also addressed teacher retention and pay.
“I believe we need to move more money from the district administration office to the classroom. This not only meets the needs of families and their students, but also those of teachers,” Yee said.
“We have to increase the pay of our teachers, and we can do that without affecting taxes because there’s plenty of money in the land trust,” Horne said.
Horne said he has devoted his career to lobbying for teachers at the Legislature.
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DEI became a contentious topic, although the two agreed it should not be in the classroom. Horne claimed Yee was a promoter of DEI.
“And if you can believe it, my opponent was on a committee, was a member of a committee, that promoted DEI. So that’s a big issue between us. She’s been denying it recently, but you can confirm it,” Horne said.
Yee disputed the claim.
“He knows that he is lying because he was sent this letter from the National Association of State Treasurers naming every single committee for which I have served on. It’s dated May 4. And this does not list any DEI committee for which I have served,” Yee said while holding up the letter.
It prompted Horne to pull out a piece of paper to defend his claim. The moderator told both candidates they broke the rule of pulling out props onstage.
During the Democratic debate Wednesday night, candidates Brett Newby and Teresa Leyba Ruiz both defended DEI and said taxpayers deserve more transparency and reform when it comes to the ESA voucher program.
Newby, a board-certified behavioral analyst and educator, called for fully funding K-12 classrooms, addressing classroom behavior issues, and expanding resources for rural communities.
He proposed building teacher housing on vacant school property to help underserved communities.
Ruiz, the former president of Glendale Community College and longtime educator, called for expanding early learning, fully funding full-day kindergarten, and broadening dual language programs.
The primary election is July 21.
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