Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Wants Schools to Certify That They Are Avoiding Critical Race Theory
“Horne has said that students should be taught they are individuals to be judged on their own merits.”
Are we finally turning a corner on this issue? It looks like that’s what’s happening in Arizona.
Arizona Central reports:
Tom Horne asks Arizona schools to take public stand on critical race theory, discipline
The Arizona Department of Education wants all public school districts and charter schools to certify that they are avoiding critical race theory and “excessive” social and emotional learning.
Earlier this month, the department asked school leaders to answer five yes or no questions as part of its new “academic focus attestation.”
The answers will be made public in the department’s online school report cards, which detail academic performance, enrollment demographics, extracurricular offerings and other information that parents might seek when selecting a school.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne opposes the use of critical race theory, which examines how U.S. systems and institutions bear unevenly on people of different races. Horne has said that students should be taught they are individuals to be judged on their own merits.
Horne has also spoken and acted against social and emotional learning, a method for teaching students interpersonal skills and emotional regulation, sometimes through classroom activities. He said he thinks it’s a waste of time that could be spent on learning. Horne said teachers described the method to him as “dumb games.”
“My heroes are math teachers who love math and history teachers who love history and so on, and some of them will complain to me because they want to teach their subjects bell to bell,” Horne said.
The academic focus attestation asks school leaders to respond either yes or no to the following statements:
- The school protects instructional time from excessive distractions labeled as Social Emotional Learning.
- The school/district appropriately respects all students as individuals, avoiding concepts like Critical Race Theory, that promote racial division.
- The school/district fully supports teacher discipline recommendations.
- Sexual content taught in school is developmentally appropriate.
- Curriculum at school does not expose students to explicit or graphic content that is developmentally inappropriate.
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Comments
After the 2022 bloodbath, Tom Horne is one of the few Republicans in executive office statewide. Furthermore, he’s done this job before, and so is not easily derailed by backstabbers. Add to this that the media hasn’t been able to render him unelectable by tarbrushing him as a “wacky radical election denier” like they have to Kari Lake, Mark Finchem, and Abe Hamadeh.
This is his time to shine as one of the only adults in the executive branch. If he can leverage higher office out of it, so much the better for us.
If a school has more than 50% of students NOT performing reading and math at grade level,
ALL activities other than reading, writing, math, recess, PE and lunch should be suspended.
No sports
No social studies
No art
No band
No sex ed
NOTHING.
As scores increase, students who are no struggling can be transferred to other schools.
When the district scores above 85%, it can return to normal.
Except for mandatory history and geography, and art (which was viewed by many of us as a penance to be endured), you’ve just described the typical grammar school of my day.
Yeah that’ll work. 🙄
Self-certification is a most reliable means of accomplishing that goal.
It can be….. if followed up by unannounced inspections and a thorough investigation of parent claims that the self-certification is a lie. When it is a lie, you fire the principal, and the teachers / admins involved.
I live in Mesa, Arizona, and I think Tom Horne has an uphill battle. https://www.azedfoundation.org/ourworldschools
This all sounds like common sense.
Tom Horne is now my hero