Photo: Arizona State Superintendent Tom Horn and Linda Conn.
The Prescott Unified School District (PUSD) Board of Education election has just taken a turn for the worse, with Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horn gaining an unusual endorsement of current school board member and re-election candidate Linda Conn. . Mr. Conn is the only school board candidate in Yavapai County to receive Mr. Horn’s support. In announcing his support for Mr. Conn, Superintendent Horn, who served for 24 years on the Paradise Valley School Board, said Mr. Conn’s “firm support for parental rights, raising academic standards, and commitment to the public school curriculum” He praised him for opposing the ‘woke’ ideology.
Linda Conn was first elected to the PUSD Board of Directors in 2022 for a two-year term. She is a lightning rod for conservative values and an advocate for “traditional American heritage” in education. She has earned a reputation for personal courage and independence in taking the Board’s “oversight” responsibilities seriously and asking tough questions of the PUSD Administration. She often voted in the minority against her more liberal colleagues on the board. She is currently running for a full four-year term in a field of six candidates for the three open seats.
Ms. Conn said she has long admired Tom Horn, who served two terms as Arizona’s Superintendent of Public Instruction (2003-2011) before becoming Arizona’s 25th Attorney General in 2011. . He is one of the architects of the Arizona Model School. Choice Program and is recognized as a national leader for her work advocating for parental rights and expanding Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA) to all segments of the community.
Mr. Conn first met Mr. Horn personally in February 2023 at the Prescott Golf Club in Dewey, at a “Tom・It was a “Salute to the Horn” event. In 2022, Horn became one of only two Republican candidates to win statewide office, thanks in part to strong Republican support from Yavapai County. Mr. Horne has just started a new term as Superintendent of Public Instruction, and Mr. Conn has been newly elected to the PUSD Board of Directors. they hit it off. The photo accompanying this article was taken earlier this week at Mr. Horne’s residence in North Phoenix.
As a candidate for re-election to the PUSD Board of Directors, Conn said he is seeking greater transparency to the public. PUSD is an A-rated district. This compares favorably with Yavapai County and many other parts of the state. But letter grades issued by state officials are based on many factors other than academic achievement and a student’s test scores. Letter grades are a composite evaluation of programs that include sports, bus service, free meal programs for needy students, compliance with DEI mandates, and other social justice elements.
PUSD’s letter grade of A and the “performance bonus” paid to Superintendent Clark Tenney obscure the fact that fewer than half of the students are working at grade level. Absenteeism rates remain near record highs. On any given day, nearly 20% of students are absent. Enrollment has dropped to fewer than 4,000 students, hundreds of whom are on waiting lists at high-performing charter and parochial schools such as Basis, Tri-City Prep and Trinity Christian.
In a recent interview with Prescott eNews, Ms. Conn said PUSD’s enrollment numbers indicate that for the foreseeable future, each graduating class will be lower than the previous year. PUSD is classified as a “declining district.” The only thing PUSD doesn’t reduce is the property taxes collected to pay for it. Ms. Conn describes herself as the board’s “truth teller.” “If Prescott voters don’t know the truth about the problems in our government-run school system, how can we fix them?” Conn asks.
Conn’s name will appear on the ballot for the PUSD board of directors in November. The Yavapai County Elections Department began mailing ballots today, October 9th. Ballots can be returned by mail or at county drop boxes. Voters who wish to vote in person can visit the county elections office at 1015 Fair St. in Prescott or vote in person at a polling place on Election Day, Nov. 5.
