Horne asks Arizona lawmakers for more police, teacher training

PHOENIX — Arizona Schools Superintendent Tom Horne asked lawmakers for more police officers on campus, more literacy coaches, and to expand a teacher training program that has been credited with improving test scores.

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Horne made the requests during his State of Schools address Tuesday to the House Education Committee.

Horne credited the teacher training program Project Momentum for directly boosting test scores in schools where it has been applied.

Project Momentum pays teachers to receive training and leadership development outside of regular school hours. Teachers learn new instruction methods and ways to help students track their progress. A 2023 report showed the program cost broke down to an average of $147 per pupil. Horne’s office is asking the legislature for $8 million to expand Project Momentum. Based on 2023 data, that amount would impact about 54,000 students in public schools.

Horne stressed the need to ensure students up to 3rd grade learn to read proficiently and hold them back if necessary.

“The worst thing to do to a child is to send him to the fourth grade if he’s not proficient in reading,” Horne said.

He compared Arizona to Mississippi, where literacy rates have improved among young students.

“They have eight times the amount of coaches that we have in Arizona,” Horne said.

Horne continued a push during his term as superintendent to fund more police officers on campuses in the name of safety. He said schools are in a waiting line to receive officers on campuses and his office is asking for $180 million, about $100 more than current levels.

Horne did not discuss funding for more social workers or counselors. He also did not discuss a wave of school campus closures across Arizona as districts struggle with enrollment and funding levels.

Horne also did not mention a multi-billion dollar facility funding court ruling in August.

In that 7-year lawsuit, Maricopa Superior Court Judge DeWain Fox ruled the legislature has not followed laws that dictate minimum funding requirements for schools for facilities, renovations and maintenance. Fox cited evidence revealing the legislature has not provided constitutional “minimum standards for schools.” Since 2002, lawmakers have chronically underfunded formulas dictated by law and failed to fully adjust those formulas for inflation, Fox wrote in his ruling.

An analysis of data presented in that lawsuit shows the cumulative shortfall to schools dating back to 2000 is nearly $7 billion. Fox wrote that districts, especially those in rural areas and those that cannot supplement funding with bonds and overrides, have had to sacrifice budgets for teachers and staff to make up for inadequate facility funds.

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