Department of Education's top legislative priority is safety

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(The Center Square) - The Arizona Department of Education’s top priority for the upcoming legislative session is school safety, according to Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne. 

The session begins Monday.

The department is requesting legislators approve a $100 million increase in its budget to deploy more police officers in public schools, Horne told The Center Square.

He said he has placed emphasis on assigning police officers to schools as school resource officers since becoming superintendent in 2023.

Over the last three years, the number of SROs in Arizona public schools has increased from 190 to 565, representing a 197% increase.  

Even with this increase in SROs, Arizona public schools are expecting additional demand next year, Horne noted.

To cite the importance of SROs in schools, Horne highlighted an instance at Legacy Traditional School in Tucson, where an SRO found Daniel Hollander on the school campus with a gun and a knife. When the SRO found him, he was talking to himself in the school gym with students and staff present, 12 News reported.

Hollander received 1½ years in prison for his actions.

Horne said the request for an additional $100 million may be voted along partisan lines because Democrats think it's better to have health care professionals instead of police officers in schools. Republicans have majorities in both the Arizona Senate and House, but lack enough seats to override vetoes by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs.

The Department of Education funds more health care professionals than police officers, Horne said.When Horne became superintendent, he said he inherited this situation and kept it because he didn't want people to lose their jobs.

The DOE supports House Bill 2142, which was pre-filed by state Rep. Matt Gress, R-Paradise Valley. His bill would create a School Safety Center within the department, the superintendent said.

The bill would mandate the center to recognize “best safety practices for enhancing school safety” as well as provide training in emergency preparedness, threat response and campus safety.

In addition to seeking $100 million for more SROs, the Department of Education will also be requesting $2.2 million for literacy teachers, Horne said.

Horne said the department currently has 34 coaches, but wants to hire another 25. 

The superintendent noted these teachers have increased reading proficiency by 12%.

Reading proficiency amongst Arizona K-12 students is “very unsatisfactory,” Horne noted. In 2024, the National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that only 26% of fourth graders in Arizona were proficient at reading.

The Department of Education is working hard to improve reading proficiency, Horne said. He added that Arizona universities need to do a better job at training teachers to teach literacy.

The additional funds for literacy teachers will be a budget request, Horne said.

Another topic the department is attempting to address in the upcoming legislative session is school discipline.

Horne told The Center Square that he is a “great believer” in the idea that “kids can’t learn if they don’t have an orderly classroom.”

If teachers don’t have the support of administrators in imposing discipline, Horne said, it is “a nightmare” for them.

According to Horne, the DOE is backing Senate Bill 1074, which was pre-filed by Senate Majority Leader John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills. This bill requires administrators to provide students who are being disciplined with a written certification that says they have been allowed to return to the classroom and the disciplinary action taken against them.  

Senate Bill 1074 mandates students who are disciplined receive this written certification before returning to the classroom.  

On top of all this, Horne said he wants to see the Legislature extend Proposition 123, so teachers can get a pay increase.

Arizona approved Proposition 123 in 2016, which allocated $3.5 billion in education funding by increasing the percentage of money K-12 schools got from the state’s public land trust from 2.5% to 6.9%, according to Ballotpedia. The proposition expired in June 2025 after state elected officials failed to reach an agreement on what to do with the program.

Horne previously told The Center Square that teachers' pay in Arizona could increase if the proposition is renewed.

Arizona is losing more teachers than it is attracting to the classroom, the superintendent stated.

The DOE released a survey last year showing Arizona had lost over 1,000 teachers between July 2025 and November 2025.

According to Horne, the two main reasons the state loses teachers are low pay and insufficient support for disciplining students.

“They’re not being rewarded properly for their work,” he said.