Career Educator Teresa Ruiz Crushes Yee in Superintendent Debate, Exposing Voucher Failures and a Teacher Crisis

Democrat Teresa “Terry” Leyba Ruiz used Tuesday’s Arizona Superintendent debate to draw a stark contrast with Republican Kimberly Yee:

• Ruiz has spent decades teaching, leading schools and listening to educators.
• Yee has built a political career around culture-war distractions and the disastrous ESA school voucher system that state auditors say is riddled with fraud.

Ruiz, a former Glendale Community College president with 35 years in education and 25 years in the classroom, repeatedly argued that Arizona’s next Superintendent must understand the real conditions students and teachers confront every day.

“Teachers don’t need more political attacks from career politicians who aren’t listening to them,” Ruiz said. “They need respect, resources and a Superintendent who understands what is actually happening in their classrooms.”

Ruiz argued that Arizona faces a teacher-shortage crisis, weak academic outcomes, school closures, overcrowded classrooms and an increasingly expensive ESA voucher system with inadequate taxpayer protections.

Yee, the state treasurer and former legislator, countered by supporting school choice, expanded school law enforcement officers, phonics-based reading instruction, traditional math and complaints about pronouns.

Ruiz interjected, “I need to also address something my opponent just said. She talked about phonics. Actually, it’s the law. Phonics actually is being taught in our schools right now.”

For Ruiz, the question was simple: Why is Yee debating pronouns and political symbolism when schools need qualified teachers, safe campuses, smaller classes, books, supplies, mental-health support and accountable use of public money?

Ruiz: ‘A Teacher Shortage Crisis’

Ruiz’s strongest asset is her background. She served as president of Glendale Community College. She has managed educational institutions, worked with families and educators, and seen the daily realities of public education.

Yee’s résumé is much thinner. She is Arizona’s treasurer, a former state senator and former chair of the Senate Education Committee. She has not built a career teaching students, managing a campus or leading a school system.

Ruiz’s campaign sharpened that point before the debate, saying Yee has “never been in a classroom besides a photo op.”

That criticism matters because Yee’s campaign has devoted significant attention to culture-war messaging. In an August Republican event, Yee falsely accused Ruiz of wanting to introduce pronouns to children as young as 5. Yee attacked teachers, saying they are trying to turn children into cats and have kitty litter boxes in the classrooms.

Ruiz responded that the state’s real emergency is the educator workforce.

“Arizona is facing a teacher shortage crisis, and people like my opponent are a major contributing factor,” Ruiz said.

Teachers, Ruiz argued, do not need more ideological attacks. They need better working conditions, support staff, manageable class sizes, adequate supplies, competitive compensation and policymakers who respect their profession.

The ESA Voucher Gotcha

Ruiz’s most damaging argument against Yee centered on the Empowerment Scholarship Account program.

Yee sponsored Arizona’s original ESA voucher law in 2011. Since then, the program has spread like a cancer, serving more than 100,000 students and costing the state more than $1 billion annually.

Ruiz did not frame the debate as a choice between parents and public schools. She framed it as a choice between accountability and a blank check.

In May, the Arizona Auditor General found serious breakdowns in ESA oversight. Auditors found that 34% of voucher transactions were unallowable, lacked required documentation, or had not been properly addressed by program staff.

The audit documented questionable spending, including

• Unmonitored automatic voucher approvals totaling $654 million.
• High error rates.
• Illegal purchases involving a dashboard camera, bathroom accessories, home-security cameras, diamonds and vacations to Disneyland.

That is Ruiz’s “gotcha” case against Yee: She is a politician who claims fiscal responsibility but helped build a fraud-filled voucher system now costing more than $1 billion a year.

Ruiz has called for clear guardrails: itemized receipts, timely transaction reviews, stronger vendor verification, public reporting of expenditures and recoveries, automatic intervention when suspicious purchases emerge, and audits that can detect misuse before public money is gone.

Schools closing statewide

Ruiz also spoke from personal experience about school closures, pointing to Larson Middle School in south Phoenix, where she once attended school and later taught.

Ruiz said closures are not merely an administrative decision. They disrupt children, devastate neighborhoods and create bigger classes at the campuses left behind.

Ruiz described reports of overcrowded classrooms, including a physics class with 39 students and students sitting on floors. She argued that public schools are being asked to do more with less while ESA spending expands without sufficient oversight.

Yee argued that enrollment decline, demographic shifts, and overbuilding have contributed to closures. She said she wants to sell or lease underused public-school property to charter and private schools.

But Ruiz offered a more urgent warning: Arizona cannot close schools, drain public resources and then act surprised when communities lose confidence in the system.

Low Scores, Real Solutions

Arizona’s student-achievement numbers underscore Ruiz’s argument. In 2025, only 41% of students in grades 3 through 8 were proficient in English, while only 34% were proficient in math—figures that remained below pre-pandemic levels.

Ruiz’s position is that students need proven supports: well-prepared teachers, smaller classes, early literacy intervention, tutoring, career and technical education, reliable technology and meaningful family engagement.

Yee just said, “There must be a solution.”

Safety Means More Than One Answer

On school safety, Ruiz rejected the idea that every campus needs the same response.

“[Communities] should be able to decide what their needs are,” she said, whether that means a school resource officer, counselor, social worker or other support.

Yee cited her work helping secure funding for school cops and the backlog of schools requesting them. Ruiz’s point is that safety is broader than policing alone. A student in crisis may need counseling; a district may need upgraded facilities; another may need an officer.

Ruiz is the Clear Choice

Ruiz made the stronger case: Arizona needs a schools chief who can confront the real crisis in its classrooms rather than default to partisan talking points.

She added that the state needs leadership that recognizes low test scores as an emergency, sees school closures as a community loss, treats teachers as professionals and ensures every ESA dollar is spent legally.

Ruiz’s closing contrast was unmistakable: Yee talks about pronouns. Ruiz talks about teachers, students, accountability and schools.

That is why Ruiz won the debate—and why her campaign is making the case that Arizona’s next State School Superintendent should be an educator, not another politician.