Why Is Arizona Sabotaging Its Own Education System?

Education is the most important part of any person's life. The lessons learned in school help turn children into knowledgeable adults, which gives them better luck in job markets, as well as a heightened emotional maturity.

Arizona currently ranks as the 44th best state in education, not a great place to be. While you'd think the state government would take steps to fix that, they seem to be doing everything they can to make it worse.

Tom Horne's Tutoring Program

Amidst dwindling education and drastic literacy rates in 2023, State Superintendent Tom Horne devised a plan to fix things. He diverted $40 million in funding from the pandemic to after-school programs like the YMCA and Boys & Girls Club to begin free tutoring for students who were struggling in their classes.

Over 30,000 students received help from this program, and it seemed to work. Six weeks of classes were shown to help 22% of students up to six months of growth.

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The program was such a success that the state planned to continue it through 2025. Key word here is planned, because just a few short days before the new year, the program was unceremoniously gutted.

A federal requirement forcing the money to go to private tutors instead of public ones has burned through all $40 million quicker than the state knew what to do with it, and with no funding, the program can not continue.

This was a widely loved program, with actual, tangible benefits, so we can only hope that the state finds a way to bring this (or a program like it) back.

[AZ Central][US News]