On March 28, 2022, the newly nominated members of the Arizona State Board of Education met and elected a new Vice President and took action on teacher discipline cases and ESA appeals. What made this action so unusual was that these nominated members have not yet been confirmed to their positions, they have only been nominated. In fact, it wasn’t until the next day that the Arizona Senate assigned the State Board of Education nominations to the Senate Education Committee for confirmation.
While appointments made while the Legislature is out of session will often get right to work, pending confirmation when the Legislature returns to session, the rapidity of seating new and unconfirmed nominations to the State Board of Education (SBE) and allowing them to vote on vital issues stunned parents and educators alike.
“The newly nominated members had not even been confirmed by your duly elected representatives before they were asked to take legal action on the future of teachers and ESA families. A clear case of the public being left out of public education once again,” said the public education watchdog group, Tucsonans United for Sound Districts in a Facebook post.
“Most or all of these members are likely to be confirmed in the next couple of weeks, so why rush them onto the board when they’re just nominees?” asked one frustrated parent.
The situation seems even more difficult to understand given that most committee activity in both chambers of the Legislature are largely completed, as legislative deadlines have knocked the majority of bills out, and action is starting to shift to the state budget.
It wasn’t until March 21st of this year that Governor Doug Ducey finally got around to naming new nominees to the State Board. For years, Arizonans interested in K-12 education have been calling on Ducey to replace members of the State Board of Education whose terms of service had expired. He refused to do so until around two weeks ago.
The Governor named replacements for Calvin Baker (term expired 1/18/2020), Jill Broussard (term expired 1/17/2022), Michele Kaye (1/18/2021), Janice Mak (1/20/2020), Luke Narducci (1/18/2021), Armando Ruiz (1/17/2022), and Patricia Welborn (1/18/2021). It is unknown as to why an appointee to replace Board member Daniel Corr was not named. Corr’s term expired on 1/18/2021.
Although not named in Ducey’s press release announcing the new members, Corr remains on the SBE and has apparently assumed the role of Board President.
As previously reported in The Arizona Daily Independent, Ducey’s replacements have been criticized for being less impressive than education advocates wanted. Among them are Dr. Scott Hagerman and Jacqui Clay, who currently serves as the Cochise County Superintendent of Schools.
Ducey also chose Doug Goodyear and Gregg Brewster to join the Arizona Board of Regents. One Capitol insider described Goodyear as “one of Ducey’s political guys,” and Brewster as “someone the Governor owned a plum job to.”
The following individuals have yet to be confirmed by the Legislature to serve on the State Board of Education:
- Jason Catanese
- Jenny Clark
- Jacqui Clay
- Dr. Scott Hagerman
- Katherine Haley
- Julia Meyerson