A bill that would put the Roosevelt School District under the control of the Arizona Department of Education is advancing in the House, and raising the stakes of the showdown between State Schools Superintendent Tom Horne and foes of the takeover plan.

The trouble has been brewing for a while. The district in question consistently underperforms, and has seen a combination of factors, including what the Arizona Republic refered to as "nepotism, cronyism, micromanaging and political power struggles" conspire to drive its achievement levels well below other districts of comparable size in the state. Horne claims that Roosevelt took a disproportionate amount of his department's resources but showed no improvement.

Matters took a turn in January when the Arizona Department of Education released a report stating how bad the district had gotten, and warning that "drastic action must be taken including removal of the Board’s authority." Less than two weeks later, HB 2711 was introduced in the House, sponsored by all three state legislators from LD16, where Roosevelt is located. 

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"Everyone knows there are serious problems at Roosevelt School District," said Mike Smith, lobbyist for Arizona School Administrators, which is one of the forces trying to prevent Horne's office from wresting control of the struggling district. "Our objection is that the bill is so poorly written. It is intended for Roosevelt, but what applies to one district applies to all of them. There's no definition of 'educational mismanagement.' Does that mean that Tom Horne gets to take over schools whenever he decides?" Smith also said that the length of the state's intervention and the power relationship between the state and the school board "need to be a lot clearer."

However, Horne responded that Smith's claims were "all false."

"[Smith] represents one of the 'don't-change-a-thing, status quo alphabet groups," Horne told PolitickerAZ. "The idea of any kind of change causes them to jump on their chairs and scream to the ceiling."

Horne claims that the bill is sufficiently specific on the areas that raised Smith's objection. "Mismanagement is defined as half of the schools in a district underperforming or failing, and at least one school must be failing," said Horne. Under the plan, the state would be in charge for three years, with a one-time possibility of renewal. Also, the school board would remain in place, but the interim superintendent could overrule its decision, said Horne.

HB 2711 is expected to get read on the floor of the House sometime this week, and remain a contentious issue for some time to come.