The best hope for improving Nevada’s broken education system is coming from Washington, D.C.
State Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro and Gov. Joe Lombardo have proposed competing education bills. Cannizzaro’s Senate Bill 460 is aggressively terrible. One of the headline items, more funding for pre-K, is likely unaffordable, given Nevada’s drop in projected revenue. That’s good because pre-K doesn’t produce lasting learning gains but can increase bad behaviors.
The bill calls for a School District Oversight Board. That sounds imposing, but it would convene only if a district’s board of trustees failed “to comply with any state law.” The board would also have a chance to provide a corrective action plan. The board’s authority is limited to trustees not following state law. That is a whole lot of nothing.
Her bill would treat charter and private schools much more harshly than failing public schools. It would stack the membership of the State Charter School Authority with people likely to despise charter schools. It would give school districts new power to stall or stop new charter schools. It would impose new testing and reporting requirements on private schools that accept Opportunity Scholarship recipients. Those regulations would probably lead many private schools to not participate in the program.
In summary, Cannizzaro wants to shield failing public schools from accountability, while punishing the overwhelmingly successful charter and private schools.
Lombardo’s Assembly Bill 584 is better but has some worrying elements. One strong proposal is a requirement that early elementary teachers receive training in phonics and the science of reading. This approach has helped Mississippi — yes, Mississippi — achieve the highest demographically adjusted fourth-grade reading scores in the country.
His bill also attempts to change the incentives in public school districts. State officials could eventually take over the operations of underperforming districts and schools. That would include financial management, governance and setting policies. Further, persistently bad schools could be converted into charter schools or run by state officials.
Also, students who attend a chronically low-performing school would become eligible to attend a private school. They would receive up to 90 percent of their per-pupil funding in an account that could be used for tuition.
Given the number of failing schools in Nevada, this would provide school choice to many students.
One major concern is that the bill would impose significant burdens on private schools that choose to participate. It likely would exclude most religious schools and require private schools to administer state tests. Lombardo’s team needs to amend that language out of the bill.
Sadly, legislative Democrats have long opposed helping students trapped in public schools. But Republicans on Capitol Hill may have a solution. They have included $20 billion for a tuition tax credit program in President Donald Trump’s tax cut bill. It would be like a much bigger Opportunity Scholarship program.
Even if it doesn’t come from Carson City, that is the game-changer Nevada education needs.
Listen to Victor Joecks discuss his columns each Monday at noon with Kevin Wall on AM 670 KMZQ Right Talk. Contact him at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on X.