By admin 
TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) – Two candidates for state superintendent debated issues of workforce readiness, literacy, teacher retention, artificial intelligence, and oversight of the Empowerment Scholarship Account Tuesday night in Scottsdale.
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Candidates open with contrasting records
Teresa Leyba Ruiz, a former teacher and the democratic candidate, opened with criticism of her opponent.
“For decades, career politicians like my opponent have underfunded schools, attacked our teachers, and prioritized political agendas over common sense solutions,” Ruiz said.
State Treasurer Kimberly Yee, the Republican candidate, responded by pointing to her record on education policy.
“I’ve spent the last thirty years working on k-12 education policy, writing academic content standards, advising governors, and passing education legislation,” Yee said.
ESA funding and school choice
Ruiz said the ESA program’s costs have grown while public schools remain underfunded compared with other states.
“It’s hard to imagine that there’s a billion dollars a year being spent on an expanded ESA program when our public schools are last in the nation in per-pupil funding,” Ruiz said.
Yee said she supports the ESA program as part of school choice.
“We have an opponent here on the stage who only wants to invest in certain students, at certain types of schools, and I don’t believe a government should tell a family what type of education that they should have for their child,” Yee said.
Academic accountability dispute
The candidates also disagreed on academic accountability for ESA recipients. Yee said increased oversight would violate student privacy law.
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“Once you start digging into their educational environment and their educational needs, you start violating the HIPA laws,” Yee said.
Ruiz said she would order an audit of the ESA program and implement academic oversight.
“Public dollars demand public accountability, and that means that if a school or a family receives public dollars through the ESAs, then they absolutely should hold to the same standards as our public schools,” Ruiz said.
Ballot measures removed
ESA-related initiatives had been on the ballot, but a judge removed them. The superintendent’s race may be the only opportunity for voters to weigh in on the program this cycle.
The candidates discussed many other topics during the debate, and you can view the full recording here.
Isabela Lisco is aReport for America corpsmember covering education solutions for 13 News. Her position is made possible through funding from Report for America and theArizona Local News Foundation’s Arizona Community Collaborative Fund.
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