PHOENIX — Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne announced Wednesday he will report the Scottsdale Unified School District to the federal government over curriculum he said includes prohibited DEI material.

The superintendent said SUSD will be put on a list that includes districts that did not sign last month’s DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) compliance policy form, putting them at risk of losing federal funding.

Horne laid out what he called a “woke” curriculum during a press conference, citing excerpts from a textbook titled “American and Arizona History” by education company Savaas .

“Here’s from page 1033: ‘Many people, including Black Lives Matter activists, argued that these separate events, they’re talking about some controversial police shootings, as well as the death of many black people in earlier years, was the result of deeply embedded racism,'” he said.

“Well, there are many people in this country who don’t think that racism is deeply embedded in this country, and they didn’t give a two-sided presentation.”

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Horne, who said he hasn’t contacted SUSD to discuss his concerns, also cited passages from the textbook that talked about the LGBTQ+ community and political events involving law enforcement.

County sheriff voices concerns about DEI material on law enforcement

Maricopa County Sheriff Jerry Sheridan spoke alongside Horne, adding that teaching children what he referred to as anti-law enforcement lessons was “offensive” to officers and first responders.

“At a time when law enforcement agencies are expanding their focus and training on things such as community outreach and de-escalation of conflicts. It is counterproductive for schools to push a politically misguided agenda that would make students fearful and suspicious of their law enforcement servants,” he said.

The Arizona Department of Education became aware of this textbook through its Empower Hotline , which was created in 2023 so parents could report what they believe to be inappropriate lessons at schools.

District disputes ‘baseless accusations’ of DEI curriculum

SUSD released a statement rejecting what it called “baseless accusations” from Horne’s office. The district explained the curriculum went through multiple rounds of approval, working with the governing board to ensure the textbook met state standards.

“His claims of indoctrination and a so-called ‘leftist curriculum being imposed’ on students are simply untrue and unsupported by fact,” SUSD said.

Other Arizona schools are currently using this curriculum, including the Peoria Unified School District. Horne said in that case, the district had the textbook’s publisher take out the controversial material before using the book.

“I wanted to add that in the context of, why not use other textbooks. You could use this textbook because the publisher is willing to take out the objectionable parts; and in the case of Poria they’ve agreed to do that,” he said.

Funding for this journalism is made possible by the Arizona Local News Foundation.

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