Patricia Moore
At our May 17 meeting we heard from three speakers who are committed to keeping Arizona strong and safe, and our children properly educated. First to speak was Arizona Superintendent of Schools Tom Horne, who is running again in 2026 to retain his position.
Horne’s Mission Statement has three goals:
1. Helping Schools Directly: Improve the issue of absenteeism and stop pushing kids forward without the skills they need, do not allow them to graduate until they are proficient in the core disciplines, and stop pushing the use of pronouns of choice rather than their proper gender. Tom said that teachers’ salaries need to be raised. Teachers are leaving the profession as they are not receiving the support from administrators.
2. Raising Academic Instruction Results. He said that every instructional minute is precious, we cannot be focusing on DEI or CRT in our schools. He says racial entitlement vs. individual merit doesn’t promote excellence, it stereotypes people. He is fighting this philosophy as well as defending ESAs in Arizona.
3. School Safely. Tom has placed 565 police “resource officers” in our schools who are protecting our children and saving lives. There are currently 87,000 students enrolled in Arizona.
George Khalaf, our next speaker, explained a bill he is endorsing called Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA). His organization First Day is lobbying the U.S. Congress to get 150 sponsors to put this measure into the 2025 budget reconciliation bill to appropriate $5 billion in tax credits among all 50 states for use in tuition, home schooling, and religious freedom in school choice. This bill will provide protections for private schools and K-8.
Returning to our club was our recently elected Sheriff Jerry Sheridan, who began by saying there’s a new sheriff in town and “I have your back!” In the five Maricopa County jails he has 50 officers who are getting drugs, weapons, etc. out of the jails. He sent the message that the inmates are no longer running the jail, the sheriff is! Jerry said he has so far kept all but one of his campaign promises with his “boots on the ground” focus. He is hiring more officers while remodeling the human relations department to attract officers who left due to dissatisfaction with the prior sheriff.
Maricopa County has a high percentage of fentanyl coming into the U.S. The cartels were not inhibited from entering. That stops with Sheridan! We have two ICE agents at our intake center 24/7. They will question immigration status, put detainers on those illegals committing crimes, and the sheriff’s department will release them to ICE who will deport them! Jerry also said that he has made 1,500 empty beds in our jails available to ICE to jail illegal prisoners who have been apprehended for crimes. Thanks to Jerry Sherdan, we are now safer in Maricopa County!