Dr. Terry Ruiz Vows to Stop School Voucher Auto-Approvals, saying “Day One, It Ends”

Dr. Terry Ruiz, a Democratic Candidate for Arizona State Superintendent, promised to halt the automatic approval of destructive ESA school vouchers on day one.

Speaking to LD18 Democrats, the 35‑year educator and former Glendale Community College president blasted Superintendent Tom Horne for refusing to rein in out‑of‑control voucher spending. She pledged to immediately stop the automatic approval of ESA applications under $2,000.

Ruiz is one of six candidates running for State Superintendent of Public Instruction. (Learn more at www.drruizforarizona.com).

“Right now, Tom Horne is auto‑approving anything under $2,000,” Ruiz said, noting that state reviews have found up to 22% of expenses are outright fraud. “We’ve seen the reports. We know the ridiculous things people are buying — not just cell phones and flat‑screen TVs, but also ridiculous lingerie and diamond rings. That ends day one.”

Horne, at age 80, is a malevolent aging parasite on a mission to destroy public education. The school voucher program was launched in 2022 and has grown from 12,000 students to 100,000 today. The fraud-ridden program provides cash to students so they can attend a fancy prep school or get dubious home schooling.

The voucher funding comes directly from public schools, and vouchers have forced dozens of public schools to close.

Slamming Horne on vouchers: “Who is he working for?”

Ruiz called the universal ESA program a “billion‑dollar siphon” draining money from public schools with “zero transparency, zero accountability.”

She accused Horne of ignoring both the law and taxpayers to protect anti-public-school-voucher interests.

• “Attorney General Mayes has asked him to stop auto‑approvals, and he refuses,” Ruiz said. “He’s continuing to auto‑approve anything, and it’s a waste of taxpayer dollars and an absolute disregard for what the ESA handbook says.”
• “Taxpayer dollars — public dollars — should have public accountability,” she added. “Our taxpayers deserve an advocate making sure these resources are really being spent on educational needs.”

Ruiz said that while the Superintendent cannot unilaterally repeal ESA vouchers, she can enforce the existing rules — something she says Horne refuses to do.

“I’ll follow the law, but I will follow it to a T,” she said. “He has a lot of crazy ideas on siphoning more money away. Why are we taking more money away from our schools?”

Ending auto‑approval and exposing the data

Ruiz laid out two immediate moves she would make against ESA abuse:

• Stop auto‑approval under $2,000: “We are not going to auto‑approve anything without looking at it and reviewing it,” Ruiz said. “Day one, we will stop this.”
• Create a public ESA data dashboard: Ruiz vowed to publish ESA spending data that the Horne administration is fighting to keep secret. She pointed to a Phoenix TV station that is suing Horne and Treasurer Kimberly Yee for refusing to release voucher information.

“Why are they holding on to that? What’s in there they don’t want taxpayers to see?” Ruiz asked. “We will be transparent. That’s going to come in the form of a data dashboard.”

“Who sues schools?” Ruiz hammers Horne’s priorities

Ruiz also torched Horne for what she called a pattern of attacking public schools instead of supporting them.

“Tom Horne has a penchant for suing our schools,” she said, citing his racist legal attacks on dual‑language programs — cases he has lost at the Arizona Supreme Court but continues to appeal.

“He’s been told he does not have the standing to sue a school, and he continues to appeal,” Ruiz said. “Who sues schools? This is the public school advocate who should be the advocate, and he’s failing.”

Ruiz promised a complete reversal: “We’re no longer going to sue our schools. Our job is to lift them up, to make sure schools have the resources they need.”

Safety, counselors, and ESA blind spots

Ruiz linked ESA expansion to new risks for students, arguing that Arizona has no real way to ensure the safety or quality of education in many voucher‑funded settings.

“With ESA vouchers, we don’t know if our children are safe,” she said. “We don’t know who’s teaching our children in private schools and home schools because we can’t do background checks on any of the private or home schools.”

She contrasted that with Horne’s choices on public‑school safety funds, criticizing him for favoring police over mental health support.

• Horne had $180 million available and forced districts to choose between a “school resource officer”—a security guard with a gun—and a counselor, Ruiz said.
• “If you requested an SRO, you were going to get funded. If you requested a counselor, more than likely you weren’t going to get funded,” she said. “Every school knows what they need. If a school is asking for a counselor, then I’m going to make sure they get one.”

“Let me be the shield”

Ruiz framed her campaign as a fight to protect students and educators from political attacks and financial neglect.

“My running for this office is all about: let me be the shield,” she said. “A shield that will protect our educators, that will protect our students, and bring in the resources, ideas and innovation that are going to benefit our students.”

She drew a sharp contrast with Horne’s record: secretive ESA spending, auto‑approved fraud, lawsuits against schools, and refusal to engage with university researchers on teacher‑shortage solutions.

“When we elect a leader into this important position, we will walk in with plans ready to move,” Ruiz said. “Day one, we protect taxpayer dollars. Day one, we stop the auto‑approvals. Day one, we start actually advocating for Arizona’s students instead of attacking their schools.”