Horne Changes the Test

Is making a test easier synonymous with rigor and high expectations?

Arizona schools Superintendent Tom Horne has issued a new mandate that will cut the number of students receiving special help with English, kicking up yet another controversy over the state's 150,000 English-language learners.

Horne has ordered all schools next school year to simplify to one question a three-question method now used to screen students for enrollment in a four-hour-a-day immersion course in English.

Don't say it's about the money. The Arizona Superintendent for Public Instruction has an answer for that.

A complaint has been filed with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights alleging the move is discriminatory and asking for an investigation, a department spokesman said.

"Those are false accusations by idiots," Horne said.

You stay classy, Tom Horne.