Yee, Kimberly

Running For:

Superintendent of Public Instruction

Political Affiliation:

Republican

Age:

52

Occupation:

State Treasurer of Arizona

Education:

B.A. English and Political Science, Pepperdine University; Masters in Public Administration (M.P.A.), Arizona State University

Family:

Married, 2 children

Religion:

Christian

Biographical Info:

Born and raised in Arizona, Kimberly Yee is the Treasurer of Arizona serving in her second term of office. Kimberly Yee is the highest ranking statewide elected Republican in Arizona and is the first Chinese American Republican woman elected to a statewide office in United States history. She is a candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction and is endorsed by four former Republican State Superintendents of Arizona, including Lisa Graham Keegan, Jaime Molera, John Huppenthal and Diane Douglas who support Kimberly for her 30 year-record of leadership to advance and protect school choice in Arizona.

In the Arizona Legislature, Kimberly served as Senate Republican Majority Leader and became the second woman elected to this position in Arizona’s history, following U.S. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who served the position in 1973, forty-four years earlier.

In 2016, she was a featured, onstage speaker during the opening day of the Republican National Convention to support the nomination of Donald J. Trump for President in Cleveland, Ohio. She was a founding member of the National Pro-Life Women’s Caucus of the Susan B. Anthony List organization. In 2014, she was nationally recognized as a “Rising Star” by the Republican National Committee. She has been named as one of the nation’s “25 Most Influential Women in State Politics” by Congressional Quarterly’s Roll Call.

Kimberly has a deep public policy background and expertise on K-12 and higher education issues, serving in the gubernatorial administrations of two Republican governors, helping develop academic standards in K-12 education from phonics-based reading, traditional mathematics, science and social studies. She was a senior staff research analyst from 1998-2003 for the Arizona State Senate Education Committee, developing the first-in-the-nation innovative charter school laws, open enrollment policies that allow students to be educated at a school outside of their zip code, and laws protecting homeschool families.

As an elected member of the Arizona Legislature, Kimberly served as the Chair of the Senate Education Committee and was a legislative member of the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools. She sponsored education bills to advance school choice opportunities, including School Tuition Organizations (STOs) with Tax Credits and Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs), laws to protect the personal information of student data, increase academic achievement, raise civics education awareness, financial literacy, and promote vocational education and workforce development.

Kimberly Yee is a graduate of Pepperdine University where she earned degrees in English and Political Science. She holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from Arizona State University. She previously worked in two Republican gubernatorial administrations, where she advanced child development, K-12 and higher education policies, and in the administration of Arizona Treasurer Dean Martin, where she advanced financial education.

Coming from a family of business-owners in Arizona since the 1930’s, Kimberly is married with two children and is active in her church, where she has served as a Sunday School teacher, and in the music and children’s ministries. Visit KimberlyYee.com for more information.

Statement:

As the daughter of an Arizona public school teacher who dedicated 38 years of teaching in the classroom, I chose a career in public policy 30 years ago with a focus on K-12 education policy with an extensive background in school choice laws, education finance and fiscal accountability.

I have been a longtime advocate of school choice as my career began in the 1990’s drafting laws giving families the educational freedom to attend schools outside of their residential zip code with open enrollment and charter schools. I believe parents should have the opportunity to select the education that best fits their child’s unique needs and a pathway to academic success no matter where they live. School choice recognizes and supports ALL forms of education, including public schools, charter schools, private schools, homeschools and tribal schools. Parents deserve to be in control of what their children are learning in classrooms and to protect them from woke ideology such as gender identity and pronoun usage. We need to get back to strong academic programs that create student success.

With student proficiency in reading and mathematics ranked at the 25th percentile, Arizona deserves better leadership in education. The current State Superintendent is asleep at the wheel. As a result, students and families in Arizona are paying the price. We deserve better. My vision for a strong education system in Arizona includes bringing back phonics-based reading instruction and traditional mathematics to ensure we get back to the basics in what I call “the old schoolhouse” approach to teaching what matters. This also includes a focus on real-world life skills in home economics with financial literacy, and shop classes to encourage the trades, including vocational education and apprenticeship programs in order to keep up with our state’s rapid growing workforce needs.

As Treasurer of Arizona, I have protected and redacted the private, federally protected student information of minors who are students of the Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs) from the media, which wants to release detailed information about ESA students, where they attend private school or if they homeschool, their HIPAA-health protected data and tax ID information. I have defended the privacy of parents and children in Court, protecting their private student information, and would continue to do so as State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

God has led me over the last 30 years to serve in various public policy positions in K-12 education and public finance that have prepared me for this role as State Superintendent of Public Instruction. It would be my honor to earn your vote in the upcoming Primary and General elections.