FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Thursday, April 18, 2024
Katie Hobbs Blocks Measure to Provide Transparency with Politically Polarizing School Board Elections
PHOENIX, ARIZONA— Despite school board elections becoming increasingly politically polarizing, Governor Katie Hobbs is proliferating the secrecy of where candidates stand on important issues impacting Arizona's children by vetoing commonsense legislation that provided necessary transparency to voters.
SB 1097, sponsored by Senator Justine Wadsack, would have added a school board candidates' party designation to the candidate's name. Currently, school board candidates' political affiliation is not revealed. Without a political designation, it can be difficult to know where candidates stand on issues like parental rights, district policies, and school curriculum.
"School boards are some of the most important elections we have in our communities," said Senator Wadsack. "They're the closest to our children, and our local school boards govern issues that impact the education and well-being of our families. We should be able to access this information without having to dig and deduce."
"In her veto letter, Governor Katie Hobbs stated the school district governing boards' focus should remain on making the best decisions for students. How can we ensure we've elected members that will make the best decisions for students if we don't know where they stand on important issues? For example, Democrats have voted for things like detrimental mask mandates, extreme social distancing, calling children by different names and pronouns while withholding that information from their parents, and exposing our kids to inappropriate and vulgar content. In the past, we've also had Arizona school boards vote to ban educators based on their conservative Christian beliefs. Republican values, on the other hand, lie in protecting our children from harmful mandates, inappropriate content, and woke ideology, while empowering parents to take an active role in their child’s education. By vetoing this bill, Governor Katie Hobbs is conveniently pushing to protect the radical Left ideology infiltrating our schools."
###
For more information, contact:
Kim Quintero
Director of Communications | Arizona State Senate Republican Caucus