Future of Arizona Schools: Hoffman, Horne face off in debate for state superintendent

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) — The 2 candidates operating for Superintendent of Instruction had very totally different options for bettering Arizona colleges. Kathy Hoffman centered closely on psychological well being sources, and Tom Horne pushed for extra self-discipline.

A heated dialogue befell between present Superintendent Hoffman and former Superintendent Horne Wednesday afternoon as they addressed a number of points surrounding Arizona training. Certainly one of Hoffman’s fundamental priorities is psychological well being for college kids. She believes psychological well being providers are essential to the well-being of scholars and the standard of training.

Even earlier than Uvalde, Hoffman has prioritized college security as properly. She stated throughout her argument that faculty districts ought to get the facility to decide on what college security measures they need enforced on their campuses.

“I launched the varsity security job pressure and that produced sources for colleges together with mannequin security plan, and in 2019 I’ve grown the varsity security grant program to a $12 million program to a $80 million program; which once more has diminished the coed to counselor ratio by 20%,” Hoffman defined.

However Horne stated if elected, he’ll require extra police presence at colleges and suggest the choice for different folks like veterans or college safety officers to get skilled or licensed to hold on campus.

Horne additionally expressed self-discipline is essential to bettering teachers and check scores, one thing he saved a excessive precedence throughout his management from 2003 to 2011. Math scores had been at 60%, whereas studying and writing had been at 70%. That’s in comparison with 42% throughout Kathy Hoffman’s administration.

“At my college I served 24 years on the varsity board, we didn’t reverse a trainer one time on self-discipline; not one time,” Horne stated. “We had been generally known as the hardest district round, our studying got here up, our check scores got here up.”

Whereas Hoffman admits check scores want enchancment, she stated Arizona is headed in the suitable path due to applications she launched in the course of the pandemic. “We discovered nationally extra important decline in studying and math over the previous yr than over the previous 30 years in historical past, however but, Arizona did make some progress throughout all demographics and throughout earnings ranges,” Hoffman stated.

One other fashionable subject was the trainer scarcity. Each candidates stated academics have to be extra aggressive, however they’d different options to the issue. Though Horne stated academics have to be extra supported with regards to self-discipline, he stated, “we’ve got to have orderly lecture rooms in any other case youngsters can’t study.” Hoffman’s strategy centered extra on progressive applications she has launched, just like the Arizona Residency Program, which creates a brand new pipeline to recruit academics.

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