Dr. Teresa Leyba Ruiz, a Democrat, is running to be Arizona’s superintendent of public instruction. With just a week left before the Nov. 3 general election, Leyba Ruiz is campaigning on the need for more oversight of school voucher money, calling the state’s priorities “out of whack” as voucher funding is spent with little review while hundreds of thousands of children lose food aid.
Leyba Ruiz taught middle school algebra and later served as president of Glendale Community College. She’s facing Republican Arizona Treasurer Kimberly Yee, who defeated incumbent Tom Horne in the July primary, in the race for superintendent.
“Public education opened every door for me, and I want to make sure that same pathway is protected for all of Arizona’s students,” Ruiz said.
Food aid and school meals
Arizona had the largest percentage drop in SNAP participation of any state since federal eligibility changes took effect in July 2025 under the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. As of ProPublica’s June 2026 count, 205,223 Arizona children were no longer getting SNAP benefits.
“Nearly half of Arizona’s children in the SNAP program have lost their benefits in the last year, yet we have no problem funding the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program that is rife with waste,” Ruiz said.
“Children can’t learn when they are hungry, so this is absolutely impacting every aspect of their lives, from attendance to behavior to academic progress,” she said.
The state superintendent has no say over SNAP, but students in SNAP households qualify for free school meals automatically. Fewer families on SNAP means more children whose parents must complete an application process before their children are fed at school.
Ruiz said that as superintendent, she would “work with the Department of Economic Security, school districts, and community organizations to strengthen outreach, improve coordination, and make sure schools have clear, accessible information about how families can qualify for free and reduced-price meals.”
Vouchers and barring automatic approval
The ESA program became universal in 2022. Almost 100,000 students in Arizona had an ESA account as of February, according to the Arizona Department of Education. In December 2024, Horne’s department started reimbursing purchases under $2,000 first and auditing them later.
In a May report, the state auditor general found that about 2.3 million transactions worth $654 million were approved that way.
A 12News report revealed that voucher money was spent on things like diamond rings and lingerie.
At a September debate, both candidates said they would end that automatic approval process.
“That has only become my opponent’s position recently,” Ruiz said.
When Yee entered the race in 2025, she faulted Horne for denying reimbursements.
“She’s the original architect of the ESA program at the legislature and voted to expand it even after Arizona voters rejected it,” Ruiz said.
As a state senator, Yee voted to create and expand ESAs with SB 1431, which turned into a ballot measure called Proposition 305. Voters rejected Prop 305 and voucher expansions in the 2018 elections, the same day Yee was elected state treasurer. The 2022 universal expansion signed into law by then-Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, was passed after Yee had left the Arizona Legislature.
Public school advocates worked to get voucher regulation back on the ballot via a citizen ballot initiative, but the Arizona Supreme Court knocked the Protect Education Act off the ballot.
“You can’t vote on accountability, but you can vote for accountability,” Ruiz said.
“I intend to perform an independent, third-party audit of the program and create a transparency portal so that taxpayers know how their money is being spent. A modern, automated system could quickly process appropriate purchases and also flag outrageous non-educational ones.”
The race
“I’m not asking voters to abandon their party,” Ruiz said of Republicans and independents.
“Should it be a math teacher who knows what the needs are inside the classroom or should it be a career politician who was recruited by the far-right Freedom Caucus and endorsed by Turning point?”
Yee entered the race at the urging of Freedom Caucus chair and Arizona Sen. Jake Hoffman and lists Turning Point Action PAC among her endorsers.
The Freedom Caucus is the far-right wing of the state’s Republican Party. Members of the caucus have denied the results of, and tried to overturn, the 2020 election.
“There have only been two teachers in this position in the last 50 years,” Ruiz said.
Kathy Hoffman, elected in 2018, was described in her voter guide statement as the first educator to lead the department in more than 20 years.
“I do not know if public education will survive four years with my opponent at the helm,” Ruiz said. “Under her watch, our public schools have become last in the nation in per pupil spending and that appears to be deliberate.”
The National Education Association’s latest report puts Arizona 50th in the United States and DC for per-student spending, only ahead of Idaho. School funding is set by the Arizona Legislature, where Yee served for eight years before becoming state treasurer.
