Arizona State Superintendent John Huppenthal was defeated by Diane Douglas, a very conservative former school board member who ran on a single issue: rolling back Common Core. Huppenthal embarrassed himself a few months ago when he admitted using a pseudonym to write disparaging comments about other people and groups on blogs.
Douglas is a big supporter of school choice.
“In the November election, Douglas will face David Garcia, an Arizona State University professor who defeated high school English teacher Sharon Thomas in the Democratic primary.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Dr. Ravitch, Thanks for blogging about this. I am very relieved that Huppenthal is gone. My son read that Republicans didn’t feel good about him after his crying scene. I am concerned about David Garcia. I know that he is on the Board of Directors for a charter school for the arts. He is also in favor of Common Core. I am currently of the belief that we are so much better off without Huppenthal, but I don’t think Diane Douglas is the answer either.
I live in Arizona and am an active public school advocate. I am a huge fan of David Garcia and hope you learn more about him. Dr Garcia is an educator, a professor, a policy maker, a manager, a role model and an inspiring leader. He is absolutely a public school
supporter. Yes, he supports charter schools too, but this is Arizona. We have had charter schools for 20 years and they are not going anywhere. That debate has long passed. I think Dr Garcia is practical. He wants kids in charter schools to get great educations but he will know how to make sure that is not happening at the expense of the 85% of our students who are in public schools – kids who also deserve great educations. Please listen to him on common core. I think here too he is pragmatic. He supports standards. He thinks there are good things about common core and that with teacher involvement they can be tweaked and improved to serve our Arizona students. Most importantly he is a voice of reason on testing. I think his line is to “measure what matters.” He knows kids are not data points to be assessed to death. We would be so fortunate to have him guiding this state on these issues.
Diane Douglas is single issue and irresponsible. Our schools in Arizona are woefully underfunded. Districts statewide have implemented common core and are teaching to the new standards. I have no great love for common core, but to simply eradicate it right now would just pull the rug out from our schools. There is no funding to replace it. There is no plan, and if one is hatched it will be a right wing ideological plan. My kids aren’t pawns in some great curriculum experiment game. If diane Douglas fulfills her ideological agenda by wiping the slate clean and saying to districts “go do whatever – at least we got rid of common core” it will be my kids who fall victim to that – they will be the pawns. Please look at dr garcia’s ideas and experience. I know he will move us forward and improve public education in Arizona.
Good riddance to Huppenthal! Absolutely one of the worst! I have been researching David Garcia and I am very excited about his campaign. There is never a candidate that I am 100% behind, so I am not looking for perfection, but I like much of what I have learned about Garcia. He has my vote in AZ!
Whew! That’s a relief. As long as both of them support charter schools.
Was there any mention made during the campaign of public schools, or were those completely ignored again? Maybe we can hire a private advocate, in addition to paying these public employees.