Sen. John Huppenthal, a Republican from Chandler, has filed an exploratory committee for the post of Arizona's chief education official for 2010.

The senator filed the paperwork with the Secretary of State on March 16.

"I have been on the Education Committee for 17 years, and I have done an enormous amount of research on what you need to do to improve our schools and get better outcomes for our students," Huppenthal said. "I feel like I have a pretty profound knowledge about almost all the aspects of the system to be able to improve educational outcomes for Arizona."

Huppenthal, the chairman of the Senate Education Accountability and Reform Committee, said he believes he has made a difference on the state's education system through legislation he has worked on through the years, particularly in the areas of school choice and performance-based compensation for teachers.

In an interview with the ~Arizona Capitol Times~, Huppenthal also emphasized the area of special education. The senator said he spent about a decade looking at issues associated with children with autism.

Research shows that children with autism can become self-supporting adults and taxpaying citizens, he said.

"I think that we need to be an absolute national leader (in this area)," he said. "The things that children with autism need more than anything is to go to an excellent school, where they are not abused by the students, an excellent school (that has) established a school culture in which children treat each other with respect."

The Chandler legislator filed the exploratory committee for the position of Superintendent of Public Instruction against the backdrop of an ailing economy and declining state revenues, which has forced the Legislature to make budget cuts to agencies and programs, including K-12 and higher education.

Asked to weigh in on the issue, Huppenthal said educators' values were reflected in the fix to the fiscal year 2009 budget.

"K-12 clearly got the lowest budget cut possible," Huppenthal said.

The Arizona Department of Education took a $133 million hit in its budget in the FY2009 budget fix. That cut represented a 3.2 percent reduction in its budget, the lowest in terms of percentage compared to cuts to other agencies. The Department of Economic Security's budget, for example, was reduced by about 11 percent. 

"I think what we are going to do is we are going to use the stimulus money to again absolutely reduce the impact on K-12 education to a minimum," Huppenthal said. "But the truth is that we can't allow our finance system to collapse in chaos."

He added: "As painful as it is, it (K-12) is going to be a part of the solution but we need to reflect our values and make sure that it's the smallest part of the solution."

Huppenthal grew up in South Tucson and attended Northern Arizona University, where he earned a degree in engineering. He was elected to the Chandler City council in 1984. He was elected to the Senate in 1992. He moved to the Arizona House in 2000, and returned to the Senate in 2004.