{"id":434,"date":"2026-05-16T19:33:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T19:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tucsonmovingreport.com\/?p=434"},"modified":"2026-05-16T19:33:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T19:33:19","slug":"horne-yee-face-off-in-gop-debate-for-state-superintendent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tucsonmovingreport.com\/?p=434","title":{"rendered":"Horne, Yee face off in GOP debate for state superintendent"},"content":{"rendered":"
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PHOENIX (AZFamily)<\/b> \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

Read more Man accused of threatening 20 Democratic lawmakers with \u2018Memorial Day operation\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the biggest issues was the state\u2019s ESA school voucher program after an audit revealed a lack of oversight and wasteful spending.<\/p>\n

The debate started with opening statements. \u201cI\u2019m the only one in statewide elected office who\u2019s fighting for the normal against left-wing craziness … I am fighting hard against critical race theory,\u201d Horne said.<\/p>\n

\u201cArizona 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,\u201d Yee said.<\/p>\n

Yee claimed a lot of chaos comes from the ESA voucher program. She compared her proposed reform to a health savings account. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou 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,\u201d Yee said.<\/p>\n

Horne acknowledged room for improvement after initially defending the voucher program. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe do it the best we can now, but we\u2019re very involved in artificial intelligence. And when that comes online, pursuant to it, the work that we\u2019re doing, we will achieve perfection,\u201d Horne said.<\/p>\n

The two candidates also addressed teacher retention and pay. <\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d Yee said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to increase the pay of our teachers, and we can do that without affecting taxes because there\u2019s plenty of money in the land trust,\u201d Horne said.<\/p>\n

Horne said he has devoted his career to lobbying for teachers at the Legislature.<\/p>\n

Read more Mesa school board settles with administrators accused of not reporting gun at soccer game<\/a><\/p>\n

DEI became a contentious topic, although the two agreed it should not be in the classroom. Horne claimed Yee was a promoter of DEI.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if you can believe it, my opponent was on a committee, was a member of a committee, that promoted DEI. So that\u2019s a big issue between us. She\u2019s been denying it recently, but you can confirm it,\u201d Horne said. <\/p>\n

Yee disputed the claim. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe 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\u2019s dated May 4. And this does not list any DEI committee for which I have served,\u201d Yee said while holding up the letter. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

He proposed building teacher housing on vacant school property to help underserved communities. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The primary election is July 21.<\/p>\n

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? <\/i>Please click here to report it<\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send <\/i>it to us here<\/i> with a brief description.<\/i><\/p>\n

Read more Judge rules law allowing Scottsdale Axon headquarters is constitutional<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tom Horne and Kimberly Yee clashed in a fiery GOP primary to be the state’s superintendent of public instruction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nHorne, Yee face off in GOP debate for state superintendent - Tucson Moving Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tucsonmovingreport.com\/?p=434\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Horne, Yee face off in GOP debate for state superintendent - Tucson Moving Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tom Horne and Kimberly Yee clashed in a fiery GOP primary to be the state's superintendent of public instruction.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/tucsonmovingreport.com\/?p=434\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Tucson Moving Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-16T19:33:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tucsonmovingreport.com\\\/?p=434#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tucsonmovingreport.com\\\/?p=434\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tucsonmovingreport.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/71841c7d449e6ab1ace6bce2f5277255\"},\"headline\":\"Horne, Yee face off in GOP debate for state superintendent\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-16T19:33:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tucsonmovingreport.com\\\/?p=434\"},\"wordCount\":654,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tucsonmovingreport.com\\\/?p=434#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tucsonmovingreport.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/cb37d94f63b7b1451918d3a152cf6ffc.avif\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/tucsonmovingreport.com\\\/?p=434#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tucsonmovingreport.com\\\/?p=434\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tucsonmovingreport.com\\\/?p=434\",\"name\":\"Horne, Yee face off in GOP debate for state superintendent - 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