🔥 Arizona's Educational Colonizer Doubles Down: Tom Horne Pushes More Guns, Less Culture in Schools
In latest speech, state superintendent prioritizes armed officers over bilingual education, and defends policies federal investigators found harmed thousands of students
Notable Quotes
💬 "Saying you want a gun-free school is like saying you are an easy victim, 'Come get me.'" - Tom Horne, defending increased armed presence in schools
💬 "Focus on racial preferences does not do anything to encourage hard work, conscientiousness or creativity." - Horne, attacking diversity initiatives
💬 "I had to teach myself English grammar while I was in law school." - Rep. Brian Garcia, challenging Horne's English-only success claims
💬 "There couldn't have been enough counselors or social workers to have helped that individual at that moment." - Rep. Matt Gress, supporting armed officers over mental health professionals
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
👧🏾✊🏾👦🏾
🌵 Arizona's top school leader, Tom Horne, gave a big speech 📢 about what he wants to do with our schools 🏫. He wants more police officers 🚓 in schools and doesn't want kids 👧👦 to learn in two languages 🌍, even though many families say 🏠 that learning two languages helps them stay connected to their families 👪 and culture 🌈. A teacher 👨🏫 who grew up speaking Spanish 🇪🇸, now called Representative Garcia, told Mr. Horne that his English-only rules ❌📖 didn't work well and made it harder for him to learn 📚. The speech shows two different ideas 💭 about what makes a good school: one that celebrates different languages and cultures 🎉, and one that wants everyone to be the same ⚖️.
🗝️ Takeaways
🏃♂️ School resource officers increased from 190 to 565 under Horne's administration
📚 Federal investigation found thousands of students incorrectly pushed out of ELL programs
💰 Voucher program exploded from 12,000 to 83,000+ students, costing nearly $1 billion
🗣️ Dual-language programs outperform English-only models despite legal challenges
🎯 No evidence of CRT in Arizona K-12 schools despite Horne's continued attacks
🏫 Teacher retention crisis continues unaddressed as Horne focuses on culture wars
The Empire's New Clothes: Tom Horne's Colonial Education Agenda Continues
By Three Sonorans - Decolonial Analysis Division
January 23, 2025
Preface: A Note from the Borderlands
Here in the borderlands where our ancestors have walked for millennia, we witness yet another chapter in the ongoing saga of colonial education policy.
Here in Tucson, on occupied O'odham lands, the border isn't just a line on a map—it's a wound that runs through our communities, schools, and children's futures. Today, that wound feels particularly raw as I watch Tom Horne, Arizona's Superintendent of Public Instruction, continue his decades-long crusade against our community's right to exist, learn, and remember.
As I write this from lands that were Mexico just 170 years ago, the irony is thick enough to cut with an obsidian blade: the same institution that once banned our languages now claims to know what's best for our children's linguistic development.
The Performance: Unpacking Horne's State of Education Address
The scene at the Arizona State Capitol would have made Gabriel García Márquez proud in its magical realism: Here was Tom Horne, the man who once banned Mexican American Studies because it made students "resent" their oppressors, now claiming to champion "individual merit" while systematically dismantling every program that helps our children succeed.
Act I: The Security Theater
Horne opened his performance with a chilling story about a school resource officer stopping an armed intruder in Tucson. "Twenty students and additional adults would have lost their lives," he declared, wielding fear like a colonial sword. But let's pause and really examine what he's saying.
His exact words should make every parent's blood run cold: "Saying you want a gun-free school is like saying you are an easy victim, 'Come get me.'"
This is from the same administration that claims to worry about student safety while creating environments that criminalize our children's very existence.
The numbers tell a story of militarization that would make Sheriff Joe Arpaio proud:
School Resource Officers increased from 190 to 565
Armed personnel are prioritized over counselors and social workers
Schools increasingly resemble the detention centers that cage our relatives at the border
As my amigo, who teaches in TUSD, says, "They want to protect our kids so much they're turning schools into prisons."
Act II: The Language Wars Continue
Perhaps the most revealing moment came when Horne doubled down on his attack against bilingual education.
"It should not be allowed," he declared, with all the subtlety of a conquistador planting a flag. This is the same man who said that his own parents, Polish Jewish refugees, would have thought bilingual education "crazy."
Let that sink in, familial.
A child of refugees whose family fled persecution and likely struggled to maintain their own language and culture now leads the charge to deny that same linguistic heritage to our children. The colonial mindset runs deep, like the copper mines that scarred our sacred lands.
But here's what Horne doesn't want you to know: The U.S. Department of Education and Justice Department found that thousands of Arizona students were incorrectly pushed out of ELL programs through manipulated test scores under his previous reign.
As he boasts about raising English proficiency rates from "4% to 31%," he conveniently forgets to mention this federal investigation that exposed the smoke and mirrors behind his numbers.
The Resistance: Rep. Brian Garcia Speaks Truth to Power
In a moment straight out of a Luis Valdez play, Representative Brian Garcia, son of immigrants from El Salvador and México, stood up to challenge Horne's colonial fantasy.
Garcia's story cuts through Horne's statistics like a machete through propaganda: despite the "success" of English-only education, Garcia had to teach himself English grammar in law school.
"I grew up as an ELL student," Garcia testified, his words carrying the weight of generations of linguistic persecution. "Throughout my own educational journey, I consistently found that excessive testing was never a complete projection of our likelihood of success."
This confrontation wasn't just political theater – it was the collision of two Arizonas:
Horne's Arizona: A colonial fantasy where assimilation equals success
Garcia's Arizona: The lived reality of our communities, where resilience blooms in the desert like wildflowers after rain
The Money Trail: Vouchers and Resource Extraction
Now, let's talk about the Great Voucher Heist, a scheme that would make the land-grab barons of the 1800s proud. The numbers make a curandera's head spin:
Before Universal Expansion:
12,000 students served
Targeted support for specific needs
Limited impact on public school funding
After Horne's "Reforms":
83,000+ students enrolled
Nearly $1 BILLION price tag
Massive wealth transfer from poor communities to rich ones
As my abuela would say, "Mismo perro, diferente collar" – same dog, different collar. Just as they once stole our land through legal mechanisms, they now extract resources from our schools through vouchers.
Horne defends this program with the enthusiasm of a gold rusher claiming Indigenous territory, arguing that families should have the "ability for the third child's needs to be met" – conveniently ignoring that most families in our communities can't afford to supplement vouchers with their own money for private school tuition.
Critical Race Theory: The Phantom Menace
Speaking of colonial fantasies, let's discuss Horne's obsession with what he calls "the most interesting philosophical divide in our country today"—his crusade against racial equity in education.
Like Don Quixote tilting at windmills, Horne continues to battle the specter of Critical Race Theory, which exists in Arizona K-12 schools about as much as water flows in the Santa Cruz River in June.
His exact words should be carved into the walls of every ethnic studies classroom as a testament to colonial thinking: "Focus on racial preferences does not do anything to encourage hard work, conscientiousness or creativity. If our country were to adopt that philosophy, we would become a mediocre third-world nation, and China would call the shots in the world."
The layers of irony here are thicker than a stack of my mother's tortillas:
He fears we'll become a "third-world nation" while promoting policies that create third-world conditions in our communities
He worries about China "calling the shots" while implementing educational colonialism that would make any imperial power proud
He champions "individual merit" while systematically dismantling programs that allow individuals from marginalized communities to succeed
As mi amigo in Chicano/a Studies used to say (before Horne banned it), "They're not afraid we'll fail—they're afraid we'll succeed."
The Digital Plantation: Technology and Surveillance
Perhaps the most insidious part of Horne's new colonial agenda is his embrace of artificial intelligence in education. He proudly announced "Khanmigo" as the future, promising personalized tutoring through algorithms.
But let's be real, familia: Who programs these algorithms? Who decides what knowledge is valuable? Who profits from our children's data?
"This is the future," Horne declared, "and we are making the tools available today." But whose future? The same future that put surveillance towers on our sacred lands? The same future that uses algorithms to detain our relatives at the border?
The Rising Tide: Community Resistance and Hope
But here's where the story turns, like the monsoon clouds that bring life-giving rain to our desert. Despite Horne's best efforts, our communities continue to resist and thrive:
In Tucson:
Mexican American Studies continues underground, in living rooms and community centers
Dual-language programs flourish despite legal challenges
Indigenous language programs grow stronger every year
In Phoenix:
Parent organizing groups challenge voucher exploitation
Community schools create culturally sustaining programs
Youth leaders emerge to challenge the system
As César Chávez reminded us, "We draw our strength from the very despair in which we have been forced to live. We shall endure."
A Call to Action: La Lucha Sigue
The path forward is clear, aunque el camino sea largo. Here's what we must do:
In Our Schools:
Document and challenge discriminatory practices
Support teachers who resist colonial curricula
Create parent-teacher alianzas for cultural education
Develop community-based language programs
In Our Communities:
Build power through neighborhood organizing
Create autonomous educational spaces
Preserve and share our historical memory
Support youth leadership development
In the Political Arena:
Register our gente to vote
Run for school boards and education positions
Challenge anti-ethnic studies policies
Demand accountability for voucher spending
In Our Cultural Spaces:
Maintain traditional knowledge systems
Create art that tells our stories
Support indigenous language preservation
Build intergenerational learning circles
Conclusion: The Seeds Are Growing
As I write these final words, the scent of creosote after rain drifts through my window—nature's reminder that life persists in the harshest conditions. Like the desert plants surrounding us, our communities have developed deep roots and sophisticated survival strategies.
Like all colonial projects, Horne's policies will ultimately fail because they fundamentally misunderstand who we are. We are not test scores to be improved or languages to be erased or cultures to be assimilated.
We are the descendants of thousands of years of resistance and survival.
Remember what the Zapatistas taught us: "They tried to bury us, but they didn't know we were seeds." Today, those seeds are sprouting through the cracks in their colonial education system. Our children speak Spanish, O'odham, Yaqui, Diné, and English. They learn their history from their elders and their community.
They carry our stories in their DNA.
The empire may have new clothes, but underneath it's the same colonial structure our ancestors resisted. Like our ancestors, we will continue to fight, teach, learn, grow, and resist.
¡La lucha sigue, y vamos a ganar!
Three Sonorans writes from occupied O'odham lands in what colonizers call Tucson, Arizona. Follow more of his analysis at ThreeSonorans.org
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Taking things in exactly the wrong direction. What a shame.
And here’s my push. For all of North America: More culture and NO guns!