Heather Mace: What Tom Horne should keep, leave behind in 2023

In many of our minds, January marks a time to reflect on what practices we want to carry forward or leave behind in the new year. For the Arizona politicians who took office this month, including Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, this means deciding which existing policies they want to uphold and which they plan to discard.

Now that Horne’s predecessor Kathy Hoffman has stepped aside, his instincts might be to abandon any legacies of her tenure. However, first, he should take a moment to consider what is working in Arizona schools that we want to continue, and what would we do best to leave behind.

Let’s start with the positive. In the past few years, Arizona has made sweeping investments in resources that will set students up for success. For example, The Final Mile project provided stable, affordable Internet access to students in rural areas across the state. In addition, The Arizona Department of Education allocated pandemic relief funds to pay for low-income students’ school meals through 2024. Providing equitable distribution of resources like these should top Horne’s list of practices to carry forward in the new year.

Next, Arizona must continue to prioritize recruiting and training, high-quality teachers. According to the RAND Corporation, teachers have the single greatest influence of any school-related factor on a student’s academic performance. Since Horne’s priorities include improving student achievement, he should be eager to recruit the best teachers available to assist in this effort. To do so, he can support new initiatives like the Arizona Teacher Residency Program, which provides aspiring teachers with training and a paid, year-long apprenticeship. Horne also can encourage state senators to move away from punitive bills that micromanage schools, and toward legislation that attracts educators to the profession.

Of course, there are also practices that Arizona schools would benefit from leaving behind. First up is our over-emphasis on testing. The average American student will take a staggering 112 standardized tests between kindergarten and high school graduation. This can undermine educators who are pressured to “teach to the test,” and lead to students burning out and not taking tests seriously.

Horne has said he wants to reinstate a requirement that students must pass a comprehensive standardized test before they can graduate high school. A similar graduation testing requirement was abolished in 2015 when bipartisan Arizona legislators agreed that such tests were essentially meaningless and a waste of taxpayer money. Instead of reviving a practice that was deemed ineffective years ago, Horne should consider ways to reduce the amount of standardized testing imposed on students.

Another practice Arizona must abandon is withholding money from public schools. In recent years, our schools have repeatedly been denied the funds that would pull them out of 48th place for per-pupil spending. Whether money has been lost to vouchers that divert taxpayer dollars to private schools or through recession-era cuts that were never fully restored, Arizona schools have gone far too long without adequate funding. Horne can use his influence to stop this siphoning of money away from public schools.

While all these topics have the potential to dramatically improve Arizona’s schools, Horne gave them little attention in his campaign materials. His website promised to stop critical race theory, “kill” ethnic studies, and ban bilingual education, but mentioned nothing about teacher retention. He dedicated multiple paragraphs to his personal civil rights philosophy but none to his plans to adequately fund our schools.

Horne’s campaign promises were provocative enough to win him an election, but now families need action that will significantly improve their children’s educational experiences. Whatever choices Horne makes, one thing is certain: they will hold great consequences for our students. It’s up to Arizonans to stay informed about decisions impacting schools and hold our elected officials accountable. Whether that means continuing a life-long habit of advocacy or getting involved for the first time, engaging in matters of education is something all Arizonans can carry forward into the new year