Linda Arzoumanian

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Tom Rogers doesn't have anything bad to say about the job Linda Arzoumanian has done for eight years as the Pima County school superintendent.

But the Libertarian is running to replace Arzoumanian, a Republican, because he wants to be a voice for less government intervention in education.

Rogers, who makes $105,000 a year as the superintendent of the Tanque Verde Unified School District, would take a pay cut to $67,800 if he wins the election, since he wouldn't be able to hold down both jobs.

He doesn't really expect to win, he said, and isn't actively campaigning, but he threw his name in the mix because he wanted to ensure that Libertarians continue to have a platform in local elections.

"I see my role as being the voice in the wilderness," said Rogers, 50. "Not many other people in education are going to agree with what I have to say."

Rogers wants the bully pulpit for year-round education, a deep ratcheting down of federal involvement in education and — in what's anathema to many in the public school arena — vouchers in the form of tax credits for parents to send their children to private schools. Private schools may not fully embrace his proposal, though, because he wants any school that accepts tax dollars for students to adhere to the same rules as public schools so that all would be on an equal playing field.

"The Constitution doesn't even have the word 'education' in it, so that should be a power left exclusively to the states," he said. Schools would have to give up some federal funding, particularly those with high rates of poverty, but he said they'd learn to adjust and reach equilibrium after some initial pain.

In the case of the superintendent's office, he said he'd comb through the office budgets to see if more is being done than what's required. And he wouldn't implement any new programs, he said. "The office might generally look the same, but the philosophy about how education should be would be different. I don't think the way most public school people do."

Arzoumanian, meanwhile, said she's proud of what she has accomplished in her tenure, even though few voters know what the office does, and she acknowledges that their eyes glaze over when she rattles off the list.

The office is responsible, in conjunction with the Division of Elections and the Pima County Recorder's Office, for school district elections, and the superintendent is responsible for filling vacancies. The office registers all home-schooled students and the community's roughly 35,000 teachers. It also is responsible for education programs for students in juvenile detention and in the county jail.

"When I first got here, it was a pretty quiet office. We looked at it and said, 'What can we do that's allowed by statute that will allow us to expand on collaboration, service and leadership in the community?' "

Arzoumanian, 66, has placed a big focus on local teacher training so teachers don't have to drive to Phoenix to become more effective. If re-elected, she said she wants to increase the focus on quality early-childhood programs in her next term.

While the candidates don't fully agree on the role of the federal government in education, they agree that it has passed too many unfunded mandates along to states and districts.

And they both say keeping the office budget in check is important to them. In Rogers' case, he is moving the Tanque Verde district toward performance-based budgeting, which will force a prioritization of programs — something he would extend to the county schools office. Arzoumanian has moved the office to a cost-recovery program so that the office can break even on programs that it's not required to offer, such as its professional-development and mentoring programs.

They also both have a wealth of experience in education. Arzoumanian, who has a doctorate in early- and middle-childhood development, has taught preschool to college. Rogers, a doctoral candidate, also has taught at all levels and has served as a principal, an athletic coach and a superintendent in two other districts.