Jay Heiler

Jay Helier (born June 11, 1960) is an American lawyer, political analyst, journalist, and businessman. Heiler currently serves as Treasurer of the Board of the Arizona Board of Regents and is a member of the Business and Finance Committee, Academic and Student Affairs Committee and the Regents Executive Committee. Heiler is also the co-founder and Board Chairman of Great Hearts Academies, a charter school network operating several K-12 campuses in Arizona and Texas. He also leads as the President of the Arizona Charter School Association.

Biography

Heiler grew up in Clermont County, Ohio, on the outskirts of Cincinnati. He graduated from Arizona State University in 1983. While at ASU, he was a Pulliam Scholar, and editor-in-chief of The State Press, the campus daily newspaper. According to the Phoenix New Times, Heiler, along with future George W. Bush speechwriter Matthew Scully, "was one in a series of students who took over the paper and used its editorial pages to push their conservative bent-attacking liberal professors, homosexuals and others."

In 1989, Heiler moved to Virginia to become editorial page editor of the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Great Hearts Academies Helier co-founded Great Hearts Academies in 2004. Great Hearts is a K-12 charter school that operates 28 campuses across Arizona and Texas. Great Hearts began with a single school in 2004 but has grown steadily. Great Hearts' curriculum is based on the Great Books of the Western World and gives its students a diverse liberal arts education. In 2016, Great Hearts announced plans to add to its charter school network and will build a new $17 million campus in north Phoenix. In 2017, Great Hearts was awarded a $20 million in bond funding to support ongoing campus development.

Appointment to Arizona Board of Regents In 2011, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer announced the appointment of Heiler to the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) citing his leadership and creativity as a co-founder of Great Hearts Academies. Heiler's term began in 2012 and expired in 2020.

2018 Arizona Senate race In October 2017, Heiler said he was considering running in the Arizona Republican primary for U.S. Senate against incumbent Jeff Flake after Flake's criticism of President Donald Trump. "'The president’s agenda is one which I wholeheartedly endorse,' Mr. Heiler said. 'I have not seen the president advance anything which I don’t think is in the best interest of the country.'"

Controversies

Statements on Homosexuals In 2012 during Heiler's confirmation to the Arizona Board of Regents, Democrats were troubled by statements Heiler had made in the past. In an editorial for The State Press at ASU, Heiler wrote: It is my impression that by 'coming out of the closet,' as their emergence has come to be called, homosexuals hope to make the rest of us less uncomfortable about their aberration-and despite one's feelings about it, it is most definitely an aberration. " Heiler was a signatory to a letter to President Trump in December 2016 urging him to support DACA students. However, as a voting member of the Arizona Board of Regents, Heiler cast the only dissenting vote against providing in-state tuition for students protected under DACA.

Biological Sex and Gender Student Policy at Great Hearts Academies As Board Chairman for Great Hearts Academies, a large charter school network based in Phoenix, Arizona, Heiler was part of the team that oversaw the passage of the "Biological Sex and Gender Policy" across all 25 Great Hearts campuses in Arizona and Texas affecting more than 10,000 students. The policy, which defines a person's gender identity by their biological sex, is seen by conservative groups as a plan that protects children. Transgender students and their parents argue that the policy is discriminatory.