Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoes 3 Republican-backed education bills

PHOENIX – Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed three Republican-backed education bills this week, including one that would have required districts to be more transparent about top officials’ salaries.

HB 2075 would have compelled all public and charter school districts to submit the contracts for their superintendents, assistant superintendents and chief financial officers to the Arizona Department of Education as public records.

In her veto letter, Hobbs said she rejected the bill because it doesn’t cover all education options in the state, citing its “robust school choice environment.”

“This bill fails to ensure that all options in the marketplace are held to the same level of transparency,” the Democrat wrote.

She didn’t directly mention Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, or ESAs, the voucher program that lets families use taxpayer dollars for private school tuition or homeschooling expenses.

However, Hobbs and Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne have clashed over accountability for ESAs in the past. Hobbs has called for the state to “tackle the waste, fraud and abuse” in the voucher program.

Horne released a statement saying the veto is a “slap against accountability.”

“We have a lot of great superintendents, but, as an example, there is one who makes $400,000 plus benefits and is allowed to run side businesses. Taxpayers have the right to know that,” he said. “District superintendents, their various assistants and chief financial officers should be accountable to the taxpayers who pay their salaries.”

What other education bills did Gov. Hobbs veto?

Hobbs also vetoed HB 2040, which would have required teachers to include adoption information whenever contraception, sexually transmitted diseases or sex education are brought up in the classroom.

Isela Blanc, community and legislative liaison for the Arizona Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, spoke against the bill at a recent hearing. She said it “does not improve education. It adds another layer of compliance to an already unworkable system and further discourages schools from offering any form of sex education instruction at all.”

In Hobbs’ veto letter, she said the state should focus on finding solutions that put children in safe homes “instead of placing onerous burdens on public education institutions that require adoption information to be provided in inappropriate settings.”

The governor also rejected HB 2008, which would have banned public school libraries from financially supporting any professional librarian support services. In her veto letter, Hobbs called the bill a “shameful and misguided attack on public school librarians” and cited declining literacy rates.

Funding for this journalism is made possible by the Arizona Local News Foundation.

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