In Yuma, Kelly Visits Southwest Early College Academy, Named a Top 10 School in the World

Kelly met with students, teachers, and staff at SWECA, recognized internationally for overcoming adversity in a community where 24 percent of residents live in poverty Kelly also sat down with KYMA on the rising cost-of-living crisis facing Arizona families This week, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly visited the Yuma area where he congratulated students and staff at the Southwest Early College Academy (SWECA) in San Luis on being named a Top 10 School in the World in the 2026 T4 Education World’s Best School Prizes under the category of Overcoming Adversity . SWECA serves a community on the U.S.-Mexico border where nearly a quarter of residents live in poverty. The school’s Early College Program has helped more than 3,000 students earn college-level math credit, sent over 1,650 students to Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Talented Youth, and turned what was once the second poorest zip code in Arizona into a math powerhouse. Kelly, a product of public schools himself, solved math problems alongside students and stressed the importance of a STEM education—something he knows personally as a former NASA astronaut and retired combat pilot—telling students that having a plan and teachers committed to their success makes all the difference. Sen. Kelly talks with students at Southwest Early College Academy in San Luis. Kelly also stopped by KYMA studios to discuss rising costs, the war in Iran, and his new AI legislation. Kelly emphasized how rising costs are affecting Arizonan families and farmers: “People can’t afford their lives right now. Half of Americans are having a hard time affording food. 50%. Millions are getting kicked off of their health care. Hundreds of thousands , or actually, it’s millions across the country losing SNAP benefits. Those numbers here in Arizona are hundreds of thousands of people. The rent is too high. Homeownership is out of reach for young people…Groceries. Gas. This war in Iran has driven up fuel prices by a lot. Diesel prices here, I think I saw $6.50 a gallon. That really impacts farmers.” Kelly talked about plan to bring down costs for the American people, highlighting his Consumer Fuel Prices Relief Act and Cost-of-Living Emergency Act : “So I’ve got legislation to bring down costs. One is to suspend the federal gas tax on gasoline, diesel, and aviation fuel. That’ll help. I also have a Cost-of-Living Emergency Act to get this White House focused, get the data and take real action to bring down people’s costs.” Kelly also criticized Donald Trump’s tariff policy, implementing tariffs that raise costs for Americans while giving Russia a free pass: “What the president could do to bring down costs right now is to end this nonsense of a war that he started with the Iranians and figure out sensible tariff policy. Tariffs do have a role. Putting tariffs on Russia to make this really hard on their economy to get them to end this war against the Ukrainians, that’s a good use of tariffs… A couple of days ago, he waived through an executive order, he waved those tariffs that we passed into legislation, the Lindsey Graham Tariff Act , on the Russians. He just waived those the other day.” Kelly also talked about his new Make AI Work for Americans Act , a bill that makes Big Tech invest in American workers: “I just introduced legislation on artificial intelligence because of the possible economic impact. It’s going to have to give workers options if they lose their job, like multiple options, paid for from the tech industry by taxing big technology companies in a few different ways. So, this would allow somebody to get different kind of training to go into a new career field or do some national service that leads to some kind of a certificate for some other kind of work.” Sen. Kelly sits down with KYMA’s Andrea Turisk.