Democrat Teresa Leyba Ruiz and Republican Kimberly Yee will debate tonight at 6 p.m. Watch the replay below.
Voters chose Leyba Ruiz and Yee in the June primary. The winner will serve a four-year term starting in January. This general election is the first in decades without current Superintendent Tom Horne on the ballot. He was seeking a fourth term as state superintendent but lost to Yee in the primary.
The race centers on the future of the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Account program — now serving more than 100,000 students at $1 billion annually — as both candidates call for tighter oversight after audits found widespread misspending. Candidates are also grappling with the federal Department of Education’s dismantling, a court-ordered $3 billion school funding shortfall and public school closures at districts throughout the state, including Amphitheater Public Schools and the Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and the Blind last spring and at Tucson Unified School District likely in 2027.
Yee defeated Horne 53.3% to 46.7%. She has been Arizona treasurer since 2018. She was the first Asian-American woman to serve in the Arizona Legislature, where she was in the House and then the Senate from 2010 to 2018.
A native Arizonan, Yee is 52. She supports oversight of the ESA program and would like it to remain universal. She is moving toward exploring other vendors of the ESA program after asking for information to assess the market and improve ESA operations after poor auditing and misspent funds came to light.
In the Republican debate last summer, Yee cited an Arizona Auditor General report, which revealed little oversight of the program for private and home-school families. The Department of Education automatically processed about $654 million in ESA transactions since December 2024.
Leyba Ruiz beat Brett Newby 79.8% to 20.2%. She has a current state teaching license. She has worked in education for 35 years — first as a math teacher and most recently as president of Glendale Community College.
A third-generation Arizonan, Leyba Ruiz is a parent of two daughters in their 20s. Both her parents graduated from Pueblo High School.
Leyba Ruiz, 60, says she would regulate the ESA program — reverting to its original intent before it was universal. She has called for more transparency with an ESA dashboard to track spending and to end the automatic approval of expenses under $2,000 and wants a program audit.
She would immediately create an office of rural and small schools for a direct connection with the superintendent’s office, she said. She supports universal pre-K and wants to retain more teachers through higher pay and increased educational access, expanding post-secondary education and training, saying education drives economic growth.
About the Superintendent of Public Instruction
The Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction is part of the executive branch of state government and is elected to head the Department of Education. Superintendents are limited to two consecutive terms and serve four years for each term.
Their job is to enforce the State Board of Education’s policies and create and achieve state standards (think testing) for all Arizona public schools, distribute state education funds to counties, certify teachers, determine the course of study and instruction, budget for school transportation, audit school officials accounts with the auditor general and issue school materials and supplies.
To participate in this election, register to vote or update your voter registration by Oct. 5. Early voting begins Oct. 7 and election day is Nov. 3.
Meet the candidates
Watch the debate
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