Career Educator vs. Stumbling Troglodyte for AZ School Superintendent

On the one hand, voters can choose a career math teacher, a Ph.D. in Education, and a former college president for the Arizona School Superintendent.

On the other hand, they can keep an 81-year-old stumbling dinosaur who has degraded Arizona’s public education system, which is ranked the worst in the nation.

Standing in a packed meeting in Tucson, Democratic state schools chief candidate Terry Ruiz, 59, tore into Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, for wasting taxpayer dollars, vilifying teachers and presiding over a steep decline in student achievement.

Slamming Horne’s “reign” and a culture of fear

Ruiz, a 35-year educator and former president of Glendale Community College, said academic performance for Arizona students has dropped on Horne’s watch — and that his focus on culture-war politics is a deliberate distraction from decades of underfunding.

“He campaigned on this culture of fear and hate,” Ruiz said, recalling Horne’s failed 10-year effort to shut down bilingual Education in Tucson. Ruiz labeled Horne a “career politician” who has never worked as a classroom educator. “All of it is a distraction because the reality is our kids can’t read because of 50 years of underfunding public education.”

When she started work at the nonprofit Education Forward Arizona in 2023, Ruiz said 41% of Arizona third graders were proficient in reading. That figure has since fallen to 36%, she told the crowd. “So over Tom Horne’s reign, academic progress has declined,” Ruiz said. “In addition to losing funding, in addition to ESA school vouchers, academic progress has declined under his leadership.”

Math scores tell a similar story, she added, noting that only 27% of eighth-graders are proficient in math based on the state assessment. “As a math teacher, when I look at our eighth-grade math metrics, it just breaks your heart,” Ruiz said.

Voucher “grift” and luxury spending on the taxpayer’s dime

Ruiz reserved some of her sharpest criticism for the state’s out-of-control universal Empowerment Scholarship Account voucher program. Fully 20% of approved applications are fraudulent.

“We’re up to over 100,000 students in the ESA program, over a billion dollars of our hard-earned taxpayer dollars being spent on these vouchers, and we can’t even get $3 million for a feed-the-children bill,” Ruiz said, referring to Rep. Nancy Gutierrez’s proposal to expand free school meals.

Ruiz accused Horne of enabling abuse of the program by “automatically approving any expense under $2,000” for voucher purchases. “The minute he put that into the policy, expenses of $1,999 were being approved,” she said. “Gift cards … cell phones, ridiculous things like lingerie, diamond rings, designer handbags — things that are taking money away from our public schools.”

“It is absolutely insane that he would automatically approve an expense without even looking at it. And all I’m suggesting is that we follow the rules,” Ruiz said.

As president of Glendale Community College, Ruiz oversaw an $86 million budget and cast herself as a meticulous steward of public funds. “Our taxpayer dollars are too valuable to be wasted just on things that are not allowed,” she said. “If you’re going to accept public dollars, there should be some public accountability. Would you agree?”

Targeting Horne’s “snitch line” against teachers

Ruiz also blasted Horne’s teacher complaint hotline, widely dubbed a “snitch line” by educators, as another example of misplaced priorities that drive teachers out of the profession.

“Teachers call it the snitch line. It’s a line that you can call and tattletale on your teacher,” Ruiz said. “It’s a waste of taxpayer dollars because, far and away, there have been very few actionable complaints that have come through. They’re all complaints about him.”

“When that is abolished, we’re going to empower our teachers,” she said. “We’re going to bring back this culture of respect. Who better to bring back a culture of respect than an educator?”

Ruiz said more than 30,000 certified teachers in Arizona are currently not in the classroom, and she directly blamed Horne. “Who wants to work for a bad boss? Tom Horne’s a bad boss. Tom Horne vilifies our teachers,” she said.

Her campaign, she said, is anchored by a comprehensive plan dubbed RISE — recruit, invest, support and elevate — aimed at restoring respect, improving pay through legislative pressure and rebuilding the educator pipeline. “Because I have nothing to lose, I can speak loudly and forcefully, and demand that Arizona invest in our future,” Ruiz said. “We are not valuing public Education in Arizona. We are not valuing our workforce.”

Public-school “kid from South Phoenix” versus “career politician”

Framing the race as a sharp contrast in backgrounds, Ruiz repeatedly underscored that she is “a proud product of public education” who spent 25 years teaching math in South Phoenix before leading one of the state’s largest community colleges.

“That is the power and the promise of public education that we need to protect, so that a kid like me from humble beginnings in South Phoenix can become the president of one of the largest community colleges in Arizona,” Ruiz said. “That’s what I’m running to protect.”

By contrast, she said, Arizona has hit the bottom nationally in per-pupil funding and ranks among the bottom five for high school graduation rates. “We’re 50th by one measure of education overall in Arizona compared to other states,” Ruiz said. “That’s unacceptable. I’m not going to stand for that.”

A people-powered bid to defeat Horne

Ruiz acknowledged Horne’s advantage in name recognition but insisted that her grassroots “people-powered campaign” can overcome it. Her campaign recently reported raising more money last quarter than GOP challenger Kimberly Yee, with more individual donors than both Horne and Yee combined, she said.

“That says we have people power,” Ruiz told supporters. “This is a people-powered campaign. It sends a really strong message to both Tom Horne and Kimberly Yee: this is a campaign to watch.”

Asked by one voter on how she plans to beat Horne, Ruiz was blunt: “You’re going to help me,” she said. “We have a really strong campaign. We are focusing on the youth. We’ve made a point to travel all 15 counties.”

“Tom Horne will not do that,” she added, vowing to keep knocking on doors and building rural alliances. “This race matters to education, to Arizona, to our children, to our teachers,” Ruiz said. “Together, let’s get me elected so I can make a difference … and together we can say we changed the direction of education in Arizona this year.”