The Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne defended the state’s voucher system and programs promoting academic excellence in his State of Education speech Tuesday afternoon.
The Republican focused the beginning of the address on campus security as well as strengthening academic achievement across Arizona communities like Native Nations and low income neighborhoods.
He told the House Education Committee that the Education Department requires more funding to keep up with the demand of police presence in schools, a talking point he mentioned in last year’s speech.
“If there is no increase in funding, and one of the districts or counties that asked for new police officers did not not get them and had a preventable incident at one of those campuses, that would be a real tragedy,” he said.
Horne said his office has increased police presence on campuses from 190 to 565 officers in the last three years and that five districts and counties have requested more police involvement in 2026.
Horne commended the state’s near 800% increase in private school voucher recipients in the last three years.
“I do not understand how anyone can say that parents do not have a right to find a school that meets their child’s needs, unless people are so immersed in ideology that they lose sight of what is best for students,” he said.
Assistant Dem. Leader Gutierriez pushes State Superintendent Tom Horne for answers on ESA voucher data on educational outcomes during his State of Education Address to House Members in today's House Education meeting. He finally admits he has none. #AZLeg #AZHouseDems #Education… pic.twitter.com/E21S2WYSLB
— Arizona House Democrats (@AZHouseDems) January 20, 2026
But when asked by Representative Nancy Gutierrez, Horne said there is no data to provide on academic outcomes for voucher recipients because the state does not interfere with private schools.
He did, however, cite that 80% of the schools in the bottom 5% of reading and math performance in the state were no longer in that bottom percentage after using Project Momentum. It’s what Horne called a “school improvement framework” that involves training for teachers and administrators, school visits and monitoring schools’ academic goals.
In regards to the education department’s focus on strengthening curriculum, he called "age-inappropriate" sex education and Critical Race Theory “distractions.”
“I proposed to the State Board that they open the teaching standards to eliminate DEI requirements that are currently in the teaching standards,” Horne said.
That proposal was rejected, and Horne said with Diversity, Equity and Inclusion requirements still in place, Arizona could lose $800 million of federal funding according to President Donald Trump’s threats.
On Wednesday, however, the U.S. Department of Education dismissed its appeal of a federal court ruling that the administration's anti-DEI efforts violated the First Amendment and federal procedural rules.
Horne also expressed concern that what he called “racial entitlements” like DEI standards could send the U.S. into mediocrity, and allow China to become the greater world power.
“Racial entitlements don’t do anything to encourage hard work, or conscientiousness or creativity,” he said, repeating what he told the education committee last year nearly word for word.
Although Horne touted the Education Department’s website and its access to public school letter grades, he said the basis for assigning those grades is being reassessed.
He alluded to the socioeconomic differences between schools, saying “the absolute proficiency rates [in schools with poorer families] will never equal those in a school where the kids come from rich backgrounds and they have so much more help at home.”
Therefore, the letter grade calculations should assess growth and proficiency separately to make the outcomes more fair across districts.
