Some parents in the Scottsdale Unified School District are upset over the contents of SUSD's recently approved social studies curriculum.
A letter sent to the district claims the new textbooks are "filled with DEI narratives, anti-law enforcement sentiment, gender identity propaganda" and other topics.
At a press conference Wednesday, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne said he’s going to report the issue to the federal government.
The U.S. Department of Education recently asked districts to sign a letter saying they’ll follow federal civil rights law and avoid the use of diversity, equity and inclusion programs or risk losing federal funds. The Arizona Department of Education has since kept a list of districts that did and did not comply.
SUSD signed it, but Horne said the newly approved textbooks violate that agreement.
“There are a few districts that refused to sign so they’ll be on the list, but we also wanna be sure that no one signed that wasn’t telling the truth," Horne said.
Federal court injunctions have blocked the Trump administration from taking funds from schools that don’t comply.
"If that's reversed on appeal, then those funds will be removed and I'm letting the Scottsdale [Unified] School District know that they'll be on the list," Horne said.
Horne included Maricopa County Sheriff Jerry Sheridan in the press conference. Sheridan said the curriculum pushes an anti-law enforcement sentiment by talking about things like Campaign Zero.
In an email to KJZZ, a Scottsdale Unified School District spokesperson said:
"We reject the baseless accusations made during today’s press conference by State Superintendent Tom Horne. His claims of indoctrination and a so-called “leftist curriculum being imposed” on students are simply untrue and unsupported by fact."
The email went on to say that SUSD is not the only district in the state using the curriculum.
"This type of inflammatory rhetoric distracts from the real issues facing Arizona schools, most notably, the need to raise student achievement in math, science, reading, and writing. That is where our focus lies heading into the 2025-26 school year."
The following materials were provided to members of the press by ADE about the new SUSD textbooks:
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