Molera defeated by Horne in ed race

Incumbent state schools chief Jaime Molera was knocked out of office by Phoenix attorney Tom Horne after a nearly half-million-dollar campaign that even his own party bosses called harsh and Molera called “negative and deceitful.”

But Horne said it was his message, not his money, that won over Republican voters.

“There’s a deep hunger in the voters for a major change in the academic performance of the students, and I think there’s a feeling I can do it,” said Horne, a Paradise Valley School Board member and former state lawmaker.

Despite few major policy differences between Molera and Horne, Horne’s campaign for superintendent of public instruction hammered a message that painted Molera as lax on enforcing English-only in the classroom and soft on the AIMS high school graduation test requirement.

“I got outspent 5-to-1, and a lot of times that dictates the message,” Molera said.

Former Tucson lawmaker Keith Bee came in third in the three-way GOP primary.

State Sen. Jay Blanchard of Gilbert swept the Democratic primary from Mesa principal and political newcomer Rod Rich.

Voters have a choice to turn around state education policy in November’s general election when Horne faces Blanchard.

The Arizona State University education professor has promised that AIMS “is gone, it’s over, it’s history, deceased, missing in action” in a Blanchard administration. His two-year term in the Senate left him with few legislative victories, including a losing battle to kill statewide AIMS testing.

“It’s a good feeling. It tells me maybe I’m not out there all alone,” said Blanchard, surprised at the margin of his victory.

“What the voters are saying is they’re sick and tired of four or five weeks of testing for our students.

“Somehow we’ve turned to testing to solve our academic problems. I believe in more teaching and less testing.”

The end of the AIMS test, especially as a graduation requirement, appeals to some teachers and parents. Critics have called it costly, poorly implemented and unfair to poor, mostly minority students. And they worry it could increase the state’s already dismal dropout rate.

“Blanchard has a chance because of the AIMS issue,” said the Rev. Oscar Tillman, president of Arizona’s NAACP. Tillman believes no matter how many times students are allowed to take the AIMS high school test, if they don’t pass it the first time many will give up. Some may even drop out.

“Nobody wants to look like a dummy,” Tillman said.

But one state schools chief’s threats, promises and policies don’t mean much to an entrenched school system when state schools chiefs change regularly. Arizona has had two different statewide tests and three different chiefs since 1990.

Now a fourth is on the way.

“Every year they change the bar,” said Kino Flores, Tolleson Union High School District superintendent. “Be consistent about the bar you’re asking us to go over.”

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