Republican state Superintendent Tom Horne will appear before a legislative committee next month after the Arizona Department of Education nearly had to return millions of dollars in funding for low-income schools to the federal government.
The state risked losing nearly $29 million for under-achieving schools after schools across the state failed to meet a Sept. 30, 2023, deadline to obligate that money or assign the funds for specific expenses. However, most of that money appears safe after the U.S. Department of Education contacted Horne last week to encourage his department to apply for a deadline extension.
An Arizona Republic report detailing the issue resulted in a rash of criticism from Democrats directed towards Horne’s Department of Education, which reportedly did not realize the money had lapsed until months after the deadline passed.
“These actions bring into question whether the Department exercises the attention, transparency and clear communication needed to appropriately oversee our state’s educational funding,” Rep. Nancy Gutierrez (D-Tucson) wrote in a letter requesting to Rep. Matt Gress (R-Phoenix) requesting a special audit of Horne’s administration of those funds.
Gress, who chairs the joint legislative audit committee, said Horne will appear before the committee at its next meeting in November..
“In response to your letter, Superintendent Tom Horne has directly requested to be placed on JLAC’s upcoming meeting agenda to address the misinformation surrounding school improvement and Title I funding allocations,” Gress wrote to Gutierrez and legislative Democrats. “I have always valued how accessible Superintendent Horne and his office have made themselves to me and my colleagues over the years.”
Gress said a broad audit of the agency by Arizona Auditor General Lindsay Perry is already underway.
Horne has repeatedly referred to allegations that his department mismanaged the funds in question as “misinformation,” but there is evidence that the department failed to take administrative steps that could have prevented the money from being returned to the federal government in the first place.
“I think it was known before 2024, but there was nothing we could do about it,” Horne told KTAR.
However, the Republic reported that Associate Superintendent Michelle Udall told the Arizona Charter Schools Association the department only realized the money had expired in March 2024.
Still, in a statement, Horne claims that an employee hired by former Superintendent Kathy Hoffman, a Democrat, failed to ensure all the money was allocated by a July 2022 deadline while Hoffman was still in office. Horne also blamed the former employee, who briefly worked under the new administration, for failing to notify his superiors about the Sept. 30, 2023, deadline before leaving office in March 2023.
But, in a statement, the U.S. Department of Education said it sent communications to all state education agencies alerting in the weeks before the Sept. 30 deadline.
Additionally, Horne’s department confirmed it made no effort to seek an extension to obligate the money after March 2024 until it was contacted by the U.S. Department of Education on Aug. 8. That contact occurred after reporters from the Arizona Republic and KJZZ News contacted federal education officials to find out whether the state could request that extension.
“The federal government reached out to us,” Horne said on KTAR. “Our understanding was that the deadline was passed … but they reached out to us and said they were making this waiver, which normally would not be available, that they were making the decision to make it available to us.”
But that runs counter to actions taken by education departments in other states, which sought similar extensions last year before and shortly after the September deadline passed. Public documents available online show several states, including New York, Florida and Nebraska, sought those extensions in 2023.
