Showdown over schools

2 candidates differ greatly on AIMS test

In November, Arizona voters will choose to push the state’s battered education system in one of two vastly different directions.

No matter who wins the race for Arizona schools chief, everyone is hoping that direction is up. Up from the nation’s cellar, where the state lingers on classroom spending and graduation rates.

Republican Tom Horne and Democrat Jay Blanchard would pave different routes to the top. Among other issues, they are on opposite sides on state testing and whether the federal and state government or local school boards should be in charge.

Phoenix attorney Horne is a former Democrat who spent nearly $500,000 of his own money to position himself as a conservative Republican, knock incumbent Jaime Molera out of the way and win Tuesday’s Republican primary race.

State Sen. Blanchard, who spent a paltry $40,000, is an Arizona State University education professor who calls himself an accidental politician. Two years ago, he was nothing more than a token Democratic opponent to powerful Republican leader Jeff Groscost in a bid for Gilbert’s Senate seat.

Then came the alternative-fuels scandal, legislation allowing people to buy new cars with state subsidies. It cost the state big money and Groscost his seat.

In the Senate, Blanchard gained a reputation as an independent rarely willing to compromise with his Democratic colleagues. But he swept Tuesday’s primary.

As the primary campaign wound down, big-spender Horne said he would invest only about $65,000 in the general election. But on Wednesday, Horne said he had been “talking off the top of my head” and didn’t know yet exactly how much he would be willing to spend to beat Blanchard.

Blanchard said he plans to spend about $70,000.

Whoever becomes state superintendent of public instruction will lead the Arizona Department of Education and win his own bully pulpit.

The biggest headache for recent school chiefs is statewide AIMS testing, or the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards. Since 1996, the nasty debate over the value of AIMS has divided the state.

Supporters say AIMS is needed to make sure schools account for the money they spend and prove elementary and high school students can read, write and do math.

But over the years, AIMS scores have been late and often wrong. Making it a graduation requirement has brought parents to tears in front of legislative committees and brought protesters to the state Capitol, calling it unfair to poor and minority kids. Each year, the high school version gets a little easier; each year a majority of students fail it.

Horne would keep the test; Blanchard would dump it.

Blanchard calls it the “Arizona Instrument for Messing up Schools.” He would kill AIMS and use the money for all-day kindergarten and tutoring for struggling students.

Horne, a former state lawmaker, promises to require that high school kids pass the AIMS test in 2006 before they can graduate, but he would once again lower the score needed to pass. Those who excel on the AIMS would get an honors diploma, Horne said, while those who flunk it would leave high school with nothing but a certificate of attendance.

The AIMS is part of a national effort to help states find, take over and hopefully improve failing schools. On Oct. 15, Arizona will label those schools that did not improve test scores and dropout and graduation rates as “underperforming.” Those who still don’t improve get a “failing” label next year.

It’s a policy pushed and at least partially funded by the Bush administration and one that Horne supports.

“I’ve been an advocate of accountability and intervening in failing schools since I was elected (to the state Legislature) in 1996,” Horne said. “If you leave it to local school boards, you’ll continue to have the mediocrity we’re dealing with now.”

But Blanchard calls it just the sort of government intrusion that weakens local control of schools.

“Come on,” Blanchard said. “We know which schools are failing. We’ve known for years.”

Blanchard said it’s time to stop and consider how to “fix the problem, not affix blame” and fund better teaching, not testing, no matter what the latest education trends.

“A number of states are beginning to stand up to the federal government,” Blanchard said, “and question the direction they’re taking us.”

Reach the reporter at [email protected].



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