Arizona superintendent urges more school police, credits 'Project Momentum' for test gains

Tom Horn, Arizona superintendent of public instruction, told the House Education Committee on the opening day of its session that schools must be safe before students can learn and asked lawmakers for more funding for school-based police.

"Students cannot achieve academically if they are not safe," Horn said in his State of Education address. He referenced reporting that schools have called law enforcement about gun threats ‘‘an average of 500 times per year’’ and said the department has increased the number of officers in schools from 190 to 565 in recent years. Horn described an incident at a Tucson charter school in which a school officer intervened and arrested an armed intruder.

Horn spent most of his remarks laying out academic initiatives. He defended Project Momentum, a school-improvement framework he said the department revived after it had been cut by a prior administration. "Schools using Project Momentum showed double the progress of the state average in reading and three times the progress in math," he said, citing the department's internal results. He also cited a single-school example in which math scores rose "27%" after weekly department involvement.

On school discipline and supports, Horn said the safety funding package adopted in recent years prioritized officers first, with counselors funded out of remaining money: "We fund every request we get for a police officer. Then what's left over is available for counselors," he told legislators.

Horn outlined the department's approach to ESA (education savings account) accountability, saying his office has tightened rules and used risk-based auditing and recoveries to claw back improper payments. "Hundreds of thousands of dollars we've gotten back," he said, adding that the office cancels accounts and removes participants when abuses are found.

He also urged lawmakers to use state land-trust monies to raise teacher pay directly to classroom teachers, saying prior efforts that routed raises through districts sometimes resulted in the increases being diverted.

Why it matters: Horn framed safety, instructional time and targeted supports as mutually reinforcing priorities—arguments that expose likely trade-offs for the 2025 budget. Horn’s calls for more officers and more coaches, expanded Project Momentum implementation, and direct teacher pay mark likely targets for upcoming appropriations and oversight hearings.

Next steps: Horn invited the committee to request supporting data; several members asked for formal presentations and written backing for the data he cited. The committee moved on to bills after the exchange.