Arizona State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Kathy Hoffman, will deliver a state of education address today in Arizona.
Ms. Hoffman, who was born between 1985 and 1986 (her exact date of birth is unknown), is famous for swearing into office on a children’s book, instead of a bible, two years ago in January 2019.
Elected officials have the option of taking their Oath of Office with one hand on a variety of books. At the inaugural ceremony on Monday, Kathy Hoffman swore her oath of office to become Arizona’s Superintendent of Public Instruction on the children’s book “Too Many Moose,” a book she enjoyed using in her classroom to help children with speech impediments.
Hoffman, a transwoman, joined in on a case in Arizona related to LGBTQ rights in April 2019, shortly after she was sworn in:
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona on behalf of Equality Arizona, a non-profit organization that advocates for the equality of LGBTQ people. The organization includes student members, two of whom are described in the complaint. One student, referred to by the anonymous initials, “A.A.,” is a gay freshman in a greater Phoenix high school. Another student, Santi Ceballos, who is identified by the initials S.C. and is also named as a plaintiff, is a seventh-grade student at a middle school in Tucson.
On April 11, 2019, exactly two weeks after the lawsuit was filed, Governor Doug Ducey signed into law an amendment that repealed the anti-LGBTQ curriculum law. Kathy Hoffman – the Arizona Superintendent of Public Education and a defendant in the lawsuit – herself acknowledged that the law needed to be repealed, and she in fact welcomed the filing of the lawsuit. There had been repeated failed legislative efforts to repeal the law before the legislature’s historic vote following the lawsuit.
On May 20, 2019, as the final step in resolving the lawsuit, the state Board of Education voted to repeal language in a state regulation, which was also challenged in the lawsuit, that required sex education classes “to promote honor and respect for monogamous hetereosexual marriage.”
Today Ms. Hoffman will be presenting to the state her thoughts on the public instruction status in Arizona.
