Who are the candidates for Ariz. schools superintendent?

Voters will decide Arizona’s next superintendent of public instruction in the 2022 election.

As the head of the public school system, the state superintendent is responsible for executing state and federal education laws. The superintendent oversees the Arizona Department of Education and has the duty of distributing state education funds.

The superintendent serves on all state public education boards including First Thing First AZ, State Board of Education and Arizona Board of Regents, which oversees Arizona’s public universities.

These are the candidates who are running:

Democratic candidates Kathy Hoffman

Kathy Hoffman took office as superintendent of public instruction in 2019 and is seeking re-election.

Hoffman has focused a significant amount of her time in office on helping schools and students deal with the side effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hoffman told The Arizona Republic that a second term would allow her to advocate for policies to address learning losses created by the pandemic.

In announcing her run for re-election, Hoffman said that she wants to keep “building an Arizona where every student has a high-quality education.”

On her campaign website, Hoffman wrote that “now, more than ever, we need elected leaders who will advocate for the long-term & sustained investments our public education system needs to thrive.”

During the 2022 legislative session, she has spoken out about the need for more education funding and has opposed measures signed into law by the governor to restrict transgender youths’ access to some surgical procedures and their participation in sports.

Prior to holding the office, Hoffman worked as a pre-school teacher and a speech therapist.

Republican candidates Tom Horne

Tom Horne previously served as state schools superintendent from 2003 to 2011, before he was Arizona’s attorney general.

Horne’s campaign website states that during his previous time holding office he focused on “academic achievement; I was a crusader against mediocrity, laziness, and political indoctrination as a substitute for academic teaching.” He added that he thinks most of the work he did was undone since he left office.

His campaign website lists his priorities if he’s elected, among them to “fight critical race theory, stop cancel culture, promote patriotism, quality education and real learning.”

As superintendent, Horne promised to champion English immersion learning, stating on his website that “bilingual education is a disaster for students who do not yet speak English.” Echoing his previous stint as superintendent, Horne intends to remove “ethnic studies,” from classrooms. Horne pushed to eliminate this during his time as superintendent and as attorney general from 2011 to 2015.

Horne is also planning to offer scholarships to state universities to students who exceed in state tests.

Shiry Sapir

Shiry Sapir is a real estate broker, property manager, general contractor and interior designer who is seeking the GOP nomination for superintendent of public instruction.

Sapir’s campaign website states she is running for the office because, “the past year had profoundly awakened me to the fact that those in power do not have the best interest at heart when it comes to our children.”

Sapir’s lists her key issues as curriculum transparency and parents having a say in what their children are taught. She also wants to direct more funds to schools in rural areas and on Native American reservations, calling for a reform on the “current formulas” used to allocate funding.

In addition, or in substitution of a reform, Sapir wants to dedicate funding for rural schools so they are less reliant on annual state budgeting decisions.

As superintendent, Sapir would look to “setting a new tone” in the office by “bringing back the spirit of unity, emphasizing American values such as patriotism, the

importance of the nuclear family, understanding and respect for our cultural

heritage and appreciation of the importance of physical fitness.”

Current state Rep. Michelle Udall, RMesa, also is in the running for the Republican nomination for superintendent of public instruction.

Udall’s campaign website states she is running because “our kids cant go through another four more years of school closures, contentious mandates and critical race theory.”

Although, her website does not list details on how she plans to implement her campaign priorities, it states that she’ll make sure schools stay open, that she wants parents to decide what’s best for their kids and that she’ll keep “bad ideas out of classrooms.”

Udall was sworn in to office in 2017, and won re-election in 2020. She authored a bill this session to would punish teachers for teaching critical race theory in classrooms. It did not gain traction at the Legislature, however. She also proposed a major overhaul of how the state funds schools, though that did not advance.

She previously served on the governing board of Mesa Public Schools and was a math teacher.