Embattled AZ Schools Chief Was Major Opponent of Full-Day Kindergarten

As Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction, John Huppenthal, has become embroiled in controversy over his incendiary anonymous blog comments, it is worth noting that Huppenthal was a central figure in our story of full-day kindergarten in Arizona: Raising Arizona Lessons for the Nation from a State’s Experience with Full-Day Kindergarten.

Though Huppenthal carried out his online antagonism anonymously — a choice, his apology claims, he made because he worried his “position as an elected official would influence the dialog” (sic) — his opposition to the passage of then-Governor Janet Napolitano’s full-day kindergarten plan in 2003 and 2004 was well-known. Huppenthal was then a state Senator, and his regular emphasis on the so-called “fade-out effect” in research on the effects of full-day kindergarten influenced many of his fellow legislators. As we say in the brief:

As one representative recalled to Elizabeth Hargrove in 2006, “Sen. Huppenthal, on [a] consistent basis, points out that the other children can catch up with all-day kindergarten kids by the third or fourth grade.” Huppenthal’s opposition shaped the debate over the original passage of full-day kindergarten in important ways. As Hargrove explains, “Several interviewees referred to Sen. Huppenthal and the research he cited to refute or question the merit of full-day kindergarten, as a major obstacle to the passage of full-day kindergarten legislation in Arizona.

As we note in our account of the fate of Arizona’s full-day kindergarten program, while it overcame the opposition of Huppenthal and his colleagues in the short term — the plan passed in May 2004 — Huppenthal’s position ultimately won out when Napolitano’s successor, Jan Brewer, signed a bill rescinding all state funding for full-day kindergarten. Huppenthal, along with all but one of his Republican colleagues in the state House and Senate and no Democrats, voted for the cut before it got to the Governor’s desk. Public interest in full-day kindergarten seems not to have subsided with the passage of the funding cut, as a debate during the election for Superintendent of Public Instruction a few months later asked candidates their opinions on the policy. Huppenthal again registered his dubiousness of full-day kindergarten:

In the midst of the controversy over Huppenthal’s anonymous online commenting habits, it’s worth remembering the influence of Huppenthal’s public comments, too. And in Arizona’s full-day kindergarten, it’s been huge.