Arizona's DEI Battle: How Tom Horne's $1.5M Threat to Kyrene Schools Echoes His MAS Ban

How one man's decade-long crusade against culturally relevant education threatens marginalized students once again

Apr 13, 2025

😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
👧🏾✊🏾👦🏾

🌵📚 In Arizona, a school official named Tom Horne 🚫💰 is trying to take away funds from schools that want to teach about diversity 🌍 and ensure everyone feels welcome 🤝. He's done this before when he stopped schools from teaching Mexican-American history 📖🇲🇽, even though these classes helped students succeed 🎓.

Many believe he's trying to control what students learn about history 📚, especially stories about people of color 🌈 and Indigenous communities 🪶. But every time this happens, communities come together 💪✨ to fight back and protect these vital programs 🛡️, showing that you can't stop people from learning their true history 🕊️✊.

🗝️ Takeaways

🚨 Arizona Superintendent Tom Horne is threatening to withhold $1.5 million from Kyrene School District over DEI language in a staff wellness policy
📜 This follows the same pattern Horne used in 2010 to dismantle Tucson's successful Mexican-American Studies program
📊 Studies showed MAS programs dramatically improved graduation rates and college attendance among participants
🧩 Anti-DEI efforts are the latest evolution of a decades-long campaign against culturally relevant education
💰 The threatened funding primarily impacts Title I schools serving low-income students
✊ Community resistance has successfully reinstated banned programs in the past and can do so again
🔄 From MAS bans to CRT panic to DEI restrictions, the target changes, but the goal remains controlling what histories are taught

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Same Oppressor, New Tactics: Tom Horne's War Against Inclusive Education

The desert has memory. The stones remember every foot that has walked this land, every battle fought, every wound inflicted. And now we watch as history repeats itself across the sacred borderlands of Arizona.

Supt. Horne: AZ's Self-Anointed Culture Warrior | SOSAZ Network

Once again, Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne has positioned himself as the gatekeeper of what knowledge is acceptable in our schools.

This time, his target is the Kyrene School District in Tempe, which he claims risks losing $1.5 million in federal funding for daring to implement a staff social-emotional wellness policy that contains—gasp—language about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).

The Latest Attack on Our Communities

The scenario unfolding now is painfully familiar to those of us who have witnessed Horne's previous crusades. According to Horne, the district's recently approved policy, which emphasizes equity in workplace culture, violates recent U.S. Department of Education guidance that supposedly requires districts to eliminate DEI-related practices to retain federal funds.

Kyrene officials, including Superintendent Laura Toenjes, maintain that their policies comply with federal and state laws, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. But compliance with actual laws has never been Horne's true concern.

Horne’s stated opposition that DEI promotes "racial entitlement" over individual merit reveals the same colonial mindset that has attempted to erase Indigenous and Chicano stories since white settlers first claimed this land.

Most telling is that district leaders expressed surprise at Horne's announcement, stating he never communicated with them directly before making his threats public. Qué conveniente, no? Make public threats through media channels while avoiding direct dialogue with those you're threatening.

The potential loss of funding would significantly impact Kyrene's Title I schools, which serve predominantly low-income students. And let's be clear about who those students often are in Arizona—they are disproportionately children of color, children of immigrants, Indigenous children, and children from families who have lived in these borderlands for generations before they were divided by walls and checkpoints.

History Repeats Itself: The Attack on Mexican-American Studies

For those with shorter memories, let me remind you that we've seen this playbook before. In 2010, Horne, then also serving as Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction, targeted Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) for its Mexican-American Studies (MAS) program.

Citing a newly enacted state law banning ethnic studies courses that supposedly promoted "ethnic solidarity" or "resentment toward other races," Horne threatened to withhold 10% of TUSD's state funding—approximately $14.9 million—unless the district eliminated these courses within 60 days.

The MAS program faced baseless accusations of fostering racial resentment and political activism, particularly against white people. An Administrative Law Judge, operating within the same system designed to maintain the status quo, found the program presented material in a "biased and emotionally charged manner." ¿Y qué esperaban? Our history IS emotionally charged because it is a history of colonization, resistance, and survival.

Despite legal challenges from TUSD teachers and administrators who correctly argued the law was racially biased and unconstitutional, and a win in the federal courts, TUSD discontinued the MAS program, to this day silencing a curriculum that empowered our youth.

What Was Really Under Attack: The Power of Culturally Relevant Education

What Horne and others like him have always feared is not some fictional promotion of resentment, but the proven success of these programs in empowering our youth to understand their histories and envision their futures.

The evidence supporting MAS programs is overwhelming:

Improved Academic Outcomes: Studies showed that students enrolled in MAS programs were more likely to graduate, pass standardized exams, and pursue higher education. In TUSD specifically, 100% of MAS students graduated, and 85% went on to college.
Culturally Relevant Education: These programs used pedagogies that validated students' cultural backgrounds and connected their heritage to academic content. This approach fostered engagement, critical thinking, and a sense of identity—all elements that threatened the narrative of assimilation that has been forced upon our communities for generations.
Social Awareness and Empowerment: MAS programs promoted understanding of social struggles and encouraged students to critically engage with issues like inequality. They helped develop leadership skills and inspired civic engagement among students.
Community Support: These programs had strong backing from local communities precisely because they addressed the historical marginalization of Mexican-American perspectives in mainstream curricula. They represented the community taking back control of the education of their children.
Broader Educational Benefits: Beyond academic success, MAS courses improved skills in reading, writing, and critical analysis while fostering intellectual curiosity and self-confidence.

The success of these programs represented a direct challenge to the educational status quo that has failed our communities for generations. When our children succeed while learning their true histories, it undermines the false narrative that assimilation into whiteness is the only path to success.

The Ongoing Pattern: From MAS Bans to Anti-DEI Crusades

The current attack on DEI in Kyrene is not an isolated incident but part of a continuous effort to whitewash education that has taken many forms over the decades. What began as banning bilingual education evolved into attacking Mexican-American Studies, then transformed into fighting against "Critical Race Theory," and now manifests as opposition to DEI initiatives.

The language changes, but the intent remains the same: to prevent our youth from learning their true histories and developing the critical consciousness necessary to challenge systems of oppression.

During the Trump era, these attacks intensified as white nationalism found renewed confidence and institutional support. The Department of Education under Betsy DeVos actively worked to dismantle protections for marginalized students while promoting school choice initiatives that further segregated our educational system.

Now, in Trump's second term, we see the same playbook being deployed with even more fervor. The recent "guidance" from the Department of Education that Horne cites as justification for his threat against Kyrene is part of this larger agenda to roll back decades of progress toward educational equity.

The Real Targets: Our Children and Their Futures

Let's be absolutely clear about who suffers when these attacks succeed: our children. The $1.5 million that Horne threatens to withhold from Kyrene would primarily impact Title I schools serving low-income students. These are the very students who benefit most from inclusive educational practices and culturally responsive teaching.

When schools are forced to abandon policies that promote equity, the existing disparities in our educational system only widen. Children from marginalized communities face increased barriers to educational success, perpetuating cycles of inequality that have plagued our communities for generations.

The attack on DEI isn't about protecting students from some imagined "indoctrination"—it's about maintaining systems of power that benefit the few at the expense of the many. It's about ensuring that our children don't develop the critical thinking skills necessary to question those systems.

Resistance in the Borderlands

But the borderlands have always been spaces of resistance. From the Indigenous peoples who resisted Spanish colonization to the Chicano movement of the 1960s and 70s to today's youth-led activism, our communities have never accepted oppression without a fight.

When TUSD's MAS program was dismantled, teachers, students, and community members organized. They held "teach-ins" outside of school hours, created community-based educational programs, and continued to fight in the courts until, years later, the courts found HB2281, the law banning Ethnic Studies, UNCONSTITUTIONAL.

Now, as Kyrene faces similar threats, the community must again mobilize. The district has already invited the public to review its policies, creating an opportunity for community members to show their support for inclusive educational practices.

La lucha sigue. The struggle continues. But we do not fight alone, and we do not fight without hope.

A Path Forward: Community Action and Solidarity

In the face of these continued attacks, there are concrete steps we can take to protect inclusive education in our communities:

Attend School Board Meetings: Make your voice heard in support of policies that promote equity and inclusion. The Kyrene School District, like all districts, holds regular public meetings where community members can speak.
Contact Elected Officials: Let your state representatives, senators, and local officials know that you support inclusive education and oppose Horne's threats to withhold funding.
Support Educators: Teachers and administrators who champion inclusive education often face significant backlash. Show them your support through letters, public statements, and presence at key meetings.
Stay Informed: Following independent media sources like Three Sonorans provides perspectives and information you won't find in mainstream outlets. Your support through subscriptions, donations, and sharing our content helps ensure that these voices remain strong.
Build Coalitions: Connect with other organizations fighting for educational justice in your community. The strength of our resistance lies in our unity across different struggles.
Educate Outside the System: Create and support community-based educational initiatives that teach the histories and perspectives missing from standardized curricula.

Hope in the Desert

The desert teaches us patience and resilience. Seeds can lie dormant for years, waiting for the right conditions to bloom. Our resistance is like that—persistent, patient, and ultimately unstoppable.

Horne's tactics are not new, and neither is our resistance. Every attack on inclusive education ultimately fails because they cannot erase the truth. Our histories, our cultures, and our resistance are etched not just in books but in the land itself, in our communities, and in the spirits of our children.

As we face this latest attack, remember that we stand in a long line of ancestors who resisted colonial education designed to separate us from our languages, cultures, and histories. They did not yield, and neither will we.

No nos rendiremos. We will not surrender.

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What are your thoughts on Horne's latest attack on inclusive education? Have you or your children experienced the benefits of culturally relevant teaching in your schools? Share your experiences in the comments below.