State Superintendent Tom Horne rails against SUSD curriculum

By J. Graber
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Arizona State School Superintendent Tom Horne is calling out the Scottsdale Unified School District’s use of a history textbook he says includes Diversity Equity and Inclusion materials in what he says is an attempt to indoctrinate students.

Horne said the book crosses President Trump’s ban on DEI material, and he intends to report school district to the Trump administration.

Horne also said the book takes an anti-law enforcement stance, with which Maricopa County Sherrif Jerry Sheridan agrees.

“At a time when law enforcement agencies are expanding their focus and training on things like community outreach and de-escalation of conflicts, it is counterproductive for schools to push a politically misguided agenda that would make students fearful and suspicious of their law enforcement servants,” Sheridan said at a recent press conference.

Scottsdale Unified School District Spokeswoman Kristine Harrington said the district denies “baseless accusations” made by Horn,

“His claims of indoctrination and a so-called ‘leftist curriculum being imposed’ on students are simply untrue and (are) unsupported by fact,” Harrington said in a written comment. “Curriculum decisions in SUSD are made through a transparent, collaborative and non-partisan process, guided by a curriculum adoption committee and aligned with Arizona state standards, standards for which Mr. Horne and the State Board are ultimately responsible. Our duly elected, non-partisan governing board, approved the social studies curriculum following months of review and community input. To single out SUSD while other districts, including Peoria Unified and charter schools like Legacy and American Leadership Academy adopted the same curriculum materials is disingenuous and politically motivated.”

The governing board approved the curriculum by Savvas Learning Company during its May13 meeting by a 3-2 vote, in which board members Amy Carney and Carine Werner voted against it.

Carney said in an email to the Daily Independent that she is not surprised by Horne’s reaction.

“As a board member, I voiced serious concerns about the online Savvas curriculum’s links to controversial content, including activist videos and websites such as Campaign Zero and The Movement for Black Lives,” she said.

“I’m also disappointed that our superintendent and board president refused my request (May 13) for an emergency meeting to address important information that was withheld from the board, the public and possibly even the (curriculum) adoption committee. Other districts, like Peoria Unified, were able to remove concerning content from the textbook-- yet that option was never brought to our attention before the vote.”

Scottsdale Unified School District Governing Board President Dr. Donna Lewis, Vice President Mike Sharkey and board members Dr. Matthew Pittinsky and Warner did not respond to requests for comment.

Horne pointed during his press conference to several examples in the book that he found offensive, including on page 1033, where it says, “Many people, including Black Lives Matter activists argued that these separate events (police shootings) as well as the death of many Black people in earlier years was the result of deeply embedded racism.”

The problem is the statement doesn’t represent the other side of the issue, Horne said.

“There are many people in this country who don’t think that racism is deeply embedded in this country,” he said.

He also pointed out the book says, on the same page, that the 2020 protests were generally peaceful.

“Well, we’ve all seen the video of a reporter saying that these protests were generally peaceful surrounded by burning buildings and attacks on police officers in the 2020 riots,” Horne said. “(It’s) a very one-sided propaganda statement without giving different points of view.”

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