John Huppenthal (born March 3, 1954) is an American politician who served as
Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction
The Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction is an elected state executive position in the Arizona state government. The superintendent oversees the state of Arizona's public school system and directs the state's Department of Education.
Th ...
from 2011–2015. Prior to being elected Superintendent, Huppenthal served as
City Councilman
A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural council ...
,
State Representative
A state legislature is a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system.
Two federations literally use the term "state legislature":
* The legislative branches of each of the fifty state governments of the United Sta ...
, and
State Senator
A state senator is a member of a state's senate in the bicameral legislature of 49 U.S. states, or a member of the unicameral Nebraska Legislature.
Description
A state senator is a member of an upper house in the bicameral legislatures of 49 U ...
. Huppenthal was also a Senior Planning Analyst for
Salt River Project
The Salt River Project (SRP) is the umbrella name for two separate entities: the Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District, an agency of the state of Arizona that serves as an electrical utility for the Phoenix metropolitan a ...
.
Personal
Huppenthal was born in
Michigan City, Indiana
Michigan City is a city in LaPorte County, Indiana, United States. It is one of the two principal cities of the Michigan City-La Porte, Indiana Metropolitan statistical area, which is included in the Chicago-Naperville-Michigan City Combined sta ...
and moved with his family to
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
during childhood. He graduated from
Salpointe Catholic High School
Salpointe Catholic High School is a co-ed Catholic high school in Tucson, Arizona run by the Carmelite Order. It is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson.
History
Salpointe Catholic High School is named for Arizona's first Bishop, Jean ...
in
Tucson
, "(at the) base of the black ill
, nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town"
, image_map =
, mapsize = 260px
, map_caption = Interactive map ...
. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from
Northern Arizona University
Northern Arizona University (NAU) is a public research university based in Flagstaff, Arizona. It was founded in 1899 as the final public university established in the Arizona Territory, 13 years before Arizona was admitted as the 48th state.
...
. He then obtained a
Master of Business Administration
A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...
from
Arizona State University
Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...
.
Political
Chandler City Council (1984–1992)
Huppenthal was elected to the Chandler City Council in 1984, where he served two four-year terms.
Arizona State Senate (1992–2000)
Huppenthal was first elected State Senator in 1992. In the
primary election
Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the ...
, Huppenthal faced two opponents; former Chandler Mayor Jerry Brooks and Don Goldwater, nephew of
Barry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was an American politician and United States Air Force officer who was a five-term U.S. Senator from Arizona (1953–1965, 1969–1987) and the Republican Party nominee for presiden ...
. Huppenthal won with nearly 50% of the vote.
As a state senator from District 6, he was chairman of the Senate Education Committee.
Arizona House of Representatives (2000–2004)
In 2000, Huppenthal was elected State Representative, serving from 2000 to 2004.
Arizona State Senate (2005–2010)
In 2004, Huppenthal announced he would seek to reelection to the State Senate. Huppenthal was supported by U.S. Senator
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American politician and United States Navy officer who served as a United States senator from Arizona from 1987 until his death in 2018. He previously served two terms ...
, who issued a statement praising Huppenthal as a "straight shooter" and a "friend of the taxpayer". Huppenthal won by a 60% to 40% margin.
In 2005, an effort to
recall
Recall may refer to:
* Recall (bugle call), a signal to stop
* Recall (information retrieval), a statistical measure
* ''ReCALL'' (journal), an academic journal about computer-assisted language learning
* Recall (memory)
* ''Recall'' (Overwatch ...
John Huppenthal was launched but failed to obtain enough signatures to make it to the ballot.
The recall effort claimed he was out-of-touch with District 20 voters.
Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction (2011–2015)
Huppenthal was elected Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction in the
2010 state election.
Huppenthal ran on a platform of "stopping
La Raza
The Spanish expression ('the people' or 'the community'; literal translation: 'the race') has historically been used to refer to the Hispanophone populations (primarily though not always exclusively in the Western Hemisphere), considered as ...
" ("The Race," i.e., Hispanic identity.)
He banned state funding for ethnic studies programs, resulting in the
Tucson Unified School District
Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) is the largest school district of Tucson, Arizona, in terms of enrollment. Dr. Gabriel Trujillo is the superintendent, appointed on September 12, 2017 by the Governing Board. As of 2016, TUSD had more than ...
("TUSD") having to shut down its Mexican-American studies program and remove numerous books from classrooms, including William Shakespeare's ''
The Tempest''. Huppenthal's ban was based on passage of House Bill 2281 (also known as HB 2281 and A.R.S. § 15–112), which he had co-authored as an Arizona State Senator.
The bill targeted the TUSD Mexican-American studies program, based on claims that it was politicizing students and breeding resentment against whites.
A subsequent report commissioned by Huppenthal was released in May 2011 finding no evidence of the ethnic studies program being in violation of the law. The study did, however, find that the program was helping to close the achievement gap.
"
Huppenthal was defeated in his race for reelection in the Republican Party primary in 2014 by
Diane Douglas
Diane Douglas is an American politician who served as Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction from 2015 to 2019. She was elected on November 4, 2014, edging out her Democratic opponent, David Garcia, by one percentage point.
Douglas succeed ...
, who subsequently won the general election, and succeeded him in office in January 2015.
On his last day in office, Huppenthal issued a letter warning the Tucson Unified School District that they were illegally promoting ethnic solidarity and the overthrow of the U.S. government by teaching Mexican history and hip hop. The letter stated that a culturally relevant U.S. history class taught from the Mexican-American perspective violates HB 2281's restrictions against advocating ethnic solidarity because it "includes substantial Mexican history," and that another such history course violates the law's ban on promoting the overthrow of the U.S. government by teaching the
Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine (often abbreviated as RATM or shortened to simply Rage) is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commerfor ...
song "
Take the Power Back
A take is a single continuous recorded performance. The term is used in film and music to denote and track the stages of production.
Film
In cinematography, a take refers to each filmed "version" of a particular shot or "setup". Takes of each s ...
". The letter also stated that a culturally relevant U.S. history course taught from the African-American perspective violates the law because it includes "An Introduction to Hip Hop Presented by Master Teacher,
KRS-One
Lawrence "Kris" Parker (born August 20, 1965), better known by his stage names KRS-One (; an abbreviation of "Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone") and Teacha, is an American rapper from New York City. He rose to prominence as part of ...
."
The Tucson Unified School District offers these culturally relevant courses pursuant to a federal court order, arising from a decades-long desegregation lawsuit.
In 2017, HB 2281 was criticized for showing "discriminatory intent" and violating the constitutional rights of the students of Arizona from Federal Judge
A. Wallace Tashima
Atsushi Wallace Tashima (born June 24, 1934) is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and a former United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Central Distric ...
.
Controversy
In 2010, as part of a High School television production class project, Keith Wagner interviewed Huppenthal, then a State Senator and running for the office of State Superintendent of Public Instruction, on the topic of budget cuts for Career and Technical Education ("CTE"). Huppenthal stated that "these are critically important programs," and decried the budget cuts to them as being "simply horrendous." Wagner then reminded Huppenthal that he had voted for a legislative bill to cut $550 million from the Arizona Department of Education's budget, with "a lot of that" cut being in CTE, then asked what factors led to that decision. Huppenthal did not address the question, but, when pressed, walked out of the interview.
In June 2014, an Arizona political blogger alleged that Huppenthal was the person behind pseudonyms used for several years to post anonymous comments on his blog, and other political websites.
The anonymous comments referred to Huppenthal in the
third-person, discussed subjects including abortion, the economy, education, child protection and race, and were overtly supportive of Huppenthal's actions and policies. Comments labeled critics as "evil scum," called recipients of public assistance "lazy pigs", and compared the work of
Planned Parenthood
The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), or simply Planned Parenthood, is a nonprofit organization that provides reproductive health care in the United States and globally. It is a tax-exempt corporation under Internal Reve ...
founder
Margaret Sanger
Margaret Higgins Sanger (born Margaret Louise Higgins; September 14, 1879September 6, 1966), also known as Margaret Sanger Slee, was an American birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse. Sanger popularized the term "birth control ...
to the actions of the Nazis. One group of comments included a call to shut down Spanish-language media: "We all need to stomp out balkanization. No Spanish radio stations, no Spanish billboards, no Spanish tv stations, no Spanish newspapers. This is America, speak English.
..I don't mind them selling Mexican food as long as the menus are mostly in English. And, I'm not being humorous or racist. A lot is at stake here."
Media outlets characterized the comments as "harsh," "inflammatory," and "racist screeds."
On June 16, 2014, Phoenix television station
KPNX
KPNX (channel 12) is a television station licensed to Mesa, Arizona, United States, serving the Phoenix area as an affiliate of NBC. The station is owned by Tegna Inc., and maintains studios at the Republic Media building on Van Buren Street i ...
broke the story, claiming that not only was Huppenthal responsible for the comments, but that he had posted many of them from his office at the Arizona Department of Education. Although Huppenthal did not respond to KPNX's request for comment, two days after the story ran he held a news conference, where he admitted to making the comments, and hundreds of other anonymous posts on political blogs. He defended his positions, but apologized for his "hurtful" comments, stating "I sincerely regret if my comments have offended anyone."
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References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Huppenthal, John
1954 births
Living people
Arizona city council members
Republican Party Arizona state senators
Northern Arizona University alumni
W. P. Carey School of Business alumni
Republican Party members of the Arizona House of Representatives
People from Chandler, Arizona
People from Michigan City, Indiana
Superintendents of Public Instruction of Arizona
Educators from Indiana