PUSD Candidate Linda Conn Endorsed by Tom Horne, Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction

Photo: Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne and Linda Conn

The Prescott Unified School District (PUSD) school board race just got a major shake-up with a rare endorsement  from  Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne,  of current Board Member and candidate for re-election, Linda Conn. To date,  Ms. Conn is the only school board candidate in Yavapai County to be singled out for Mr. Horne’s endorsement. In announcing his support,  Superintendent Horne, who spent 24 years on the Paradise Valley School Board, praised  Ms. Conn’s “steadfast support for parental rights, raising  academic standards, and opposing ‘woke’ ideology in public school curriculum.”

Linda Conn was first elected to a two year term on the PUSD Board in 2022.  She  has been a lighting rod for conservative values and a champion of upholding “traditional American Heritage”  in the classroom. She has earned a reputation for personal courage and independence for taking the Board’s ‘oversight’ responsibilities seriously and asking tough questions of the PUSD Administration.  She has often voted in the minority against her more liberal colleagues on the Board. She is now running for a full four year term in a crowded field of six candidates for three open seats.

Ms. Conn states she has been a long time admirer of Tom Horne, 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 Arizona’s model school choice program and is recognized as a national leader for his defense of parental rights and efforts to extend  Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA’s) to all segments of the community.

Ms. Conn first met Mr. Horne personally at a Salute To Tom Horne event  in February 2023, at the Prescott Golf Club in Dewey,  jointly sponsored by the Citizens Tax Committee (CTC) and Republican activist Ed Cocchiolla.  In 2022, Mr. Horne was one of only two Republican candidates to win statewide office due in part to a strong Republican vote from Yavapai County. Mr. Horne had just been sworn in for a new term as Superintendent of Public Instruction and Ms. Conn was a newly elected PUSD Board Member.  They hit it off.  The photographs accompanying this article were taken earlier this week at Mr. Horne’s residence in North Phoenix.

As a candidate for re-election to the PUSD Board, Ms. Conn says she is demanding more transparency with the public. PUSD is an A rated district. It compares well with many districts in Yavapai County and across the state. But letter grades issued by state authorities are based on many factors other than  academic achievement or student test scores.  The letter grade is a composite of ratings on  programs that include sports,  bus service,  free food programs for needy students, compliance with DEI mandates, and other social justice factors.

PUSD’s letter grade of A and the ‘performance bonus’  paid to Superintendent Clark Tenney obscure the fact that less than half of the students are working at grade level.  Absenteeism remains near record highs. On any given day nearly 20% of the students don’t show up.  Enrollment has slipped to under 4000 students and several hundred of those are wait-listed at stronger performing charter and parochial schools such as Basis,  Tri-City Prep and Trinity Christian.

In a recent interview with Prescott eNews,  Ms. Conn noted that enrollment figures at PUSD indicate that for the foreseeable future,  each graduating class will be smaller than the year before.  PUSD is classified as a  ‘declining district.’  The only things that aren’t  going down at PUSD are the  property taxes collected to pay for them.  Ms. Conn describes herself as a ‘truth teller’  on the Board.   “If Prescott voters don’t know the truth about the problems with our  government run school system”,  Conn asks,  “how can we know how to fix them?”

Ms. Conn’s name will appear on the November ballot for election to the PUSD Governing Board. The Yavapai County Elections Office has begun mailing ballots today,  October 9th. Ballots may be returned by mail or at county Drop Boxes. Voters wishing to vote in person may visit the County Elections Office at 1015 Fair Street in Prescott, or vote in person at a polling location on election day, November 5th.