(The Center Square) – Arizona’s top education post will be spearheaded by a former math professor and community college president.
Democrat Teresa Leyba Ruiz, who taught math classes at South Mountain Community College before becoming the eighth president of Glendale Community College, rolled to victory in Arizona’s superintendent of public instruction race last week.
Ruiz, a native Arizonan, defeated State Treasurer Kimberly Yee, R-Scottsdale, by 165,571 votes, becoming one of six Democrats to sweep statewide office during the midterms.
On Thursday, Ruiz told The Center Square that her 6.55% victory over Yee stemmed from Arizonans’ frustrations over the way K-12 education has been run in the state, particularly by Republican Tom Horne, who Yee defeated in this year’s GOP primary.
“It’s a really exciting opportunity, and it is shocking that, in the last 50 years, I’m only the third educator to lead the Arizona Department of Education,” Ruiz said. “That should almost be a minimum qualification, right?
“You should be an educator in this important role. And I only not only bring experience from the classroom, but also as an executive leader, as a former president of a community college,” she said. “So it’s an opportunity to really take what I’ve done for 35 years, which is focusing on our students and educators and families and bringing that same kind of advocacy on a statewide level, ensuring that the voices of our students and teachers and families are heard and respected.”
The Center Square reached out to Democratic and Republican education committee leadership in the state House to discuss education in the state but did not hear back from either side in time for this story.
Ruiz touched on a few of her top-level policy goals for her first term in office, such as reining in what she called Empowerment Scholarship Account abuse and bringing back what she said is “a culture of respect and admiration for our educators.”
She also pointed people to her eight-point plan for her first 100 days in office, which includes ESA spending oversight, celebration of public school educators and partnerships with parents from each of Arizona’s 15 counties to make sure their concerns are heard.
Ruiz said she plans on barnstorming the state, hitting each of those counties and working with local school superintendents to ensure they have the support and resources to help students thrive.
“I like to think of it as a learning tour because while we’ve seen a lot, we didn’t get to see everything,” Ruiz said. “And to really advocate means you have to understand, ‘What are their needs? How can we help? How can we find resources?’ So really launching that conversation.”
During a conference call with The Center Square’s journalists Thursday morning, Jonathan Williams of the American Legislative Exchange Council challenged Ruiz and fellow Arizona’s slate of Democratic winners to side with school choice in the new year.
“I think it is somewhat likely that new progressive majorities will take from that playbook and try to pass something legislatively, probably in the early days of session, to try to take away school choice opportunities, unfortunately,” Williams said. “So that to me would be a free market threat. Number one is the enemies of school choice are going to feel emboldened to go out and legislatively turn back some of these very important school choice programs.”
In response to that, Ruiz told The Center Square that she and her fellow Democrats are in favor of school choice. But she added that accountability and responsibility have to be brought back so that nobody’s abusing the state’s ESA program.
Last year, Phoenix NBC affiliate 12 News found that $124 million in ESA requests had been rubber-stamped by the Arizona Department of Education after Horne instituted a policy that automatically approved ESA requests of up to $500 in 2024.
Those expenditures included using scholarship money to buy things like diamond rings and necklaces, kitchen appliances and lingerie, which led to Horne’s office pulling the policy in August 2025.
Ruiz said she heard from a host of Arizona parents during her campaign stops who worried about ESA accountability, including from families who used the program but were concerned about its longevity because of other people’s actions.
“No one is trying to take [school choice] away,” Ruiz said. “The only difference now is that there are public dollars that are being used to fund those private education decisions with zero accountability.”
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, who was one of the six Democrats to sweep statewide office alongside Ruiz, told The Center Square that her office will continue to prosecute anyone who abuses Arizona’s ESA program.
“We stand ready to help her deal with the issues that were created by this out-of-control ESA program, including the fraud that exists in the program,” Mayes said.
The attorney general expressed her hope that such cases won’t be needed now that Democrats can enact tougher regulations surrounding the scholarships. She said she’s hopeful that Ruiz and legislative leaders will enact steps such as income caps to save taxpayer dollars statewide.
“There’s a lot that can be done to rein in this program and to save taxpayers a lot of money and then reorient that money to our public schools, which are at or near the bottom in the nation for per-pupil spending,” Mayes said.
Ruiz’s goals are built around working in tandem with the Democratic majority in the Legislature to bring Arizona’s K-12 spending up to the national average.
According to World Population Review, Arizona’s K-12 per pupil spending in 2025 ($12,003) was the fourth lowest nationally, 31.9% below the national average of $17,619.
Looking forward, Ruiz said she wants to spend the amount of money needed to ensure schools deliver for students of all backgrounds.
“It’s a new chapter in Arizona, and this is really a nonpartisan issue because we’re talking about our children and their future. And every single parent I have spoken to, regardless of political affiliation, wants their children to have access to high-quality education, which means we must fund it,” Ruiz said.
Ruiz said it’ll take time for Democrats to reverse what she called a half-century of underfunding K-12 education.
Still, her takeaway from a year spent on the campaign trail to be Arizona’s next top educator is that she’ll chip away at the structural issues she saw across the state.
Ruiz spotlighted things like as an auditorium in Page that was held up by scaffolding and jack lifts or a school in Patagonia that limited staff to 1,000 photocopies a year to avoid blowing through the district’s budget as proof that Arizona’s current K-12 system is in need of a systematic overhaul.
“That’s what we have to change. And of course, I’ll be the advocate-in-chief,” Ruiz said. “I’m so excited to do this, and to work closely with a legislature that is pro-public education and that is being led by educators.”
This article was originally published by The Center Square and is republished under its open-access guidelines.