Wednesday, June 25, 2003 | 11:28 a.m.
For about 10 minutes Tuesday night dozens of students and a handful of parents and teachers stood in front of the Kenny C. Guinn Middle School chanting, "Stop the madness. Save education."
It was a message those involved in the third local pro-school funding rally in a week hoped would carry to Carson City, where state lawmakers gather today for a second special session to deal with proposed tax increases and the K-12 budget.
Rally organizer Teri Witzel, president of the Katz Elementary School PTA, said she also hoped holding the Tuesday rally at the Guinn Middle School would catch the attention of the school's namesake.
"Maybe it will get the point across that he's part of the problem, too," Witzel said of Gov. Kenny Guinn. "He's got to quit being so hard-headed and let them detach the K-12 budget and vote on it."
"They're holding our kids hostage. I know we need new taxes, but they really don't have anything to do with the K-12 budget," Witzel said. The governor's "got to do something. Don't let them bicker like children. Be the parent, step in and take care of the situation," she said.
The $1.6 billion two-year schools budget currently is tied to the controversial $869 million tax increase. Tax increases must be approved by a two-thirds vote, and so far a group of Assembly Republicans has blocked the tax increases.
If it weren't tied to the tax plan, the education budget could be approved by a majority vote, those Republicans have said. The Legislature has passed a budget for everything but K-12 schools, but the Republican bloc also wants to reopen the rest of the budget to make more cuts.
Clark County School District officials have said the financial uncertainty has made it impossible for them to fill nearly 1,000 positions open for the 2003-2004 academic year so they have had to reassign 411 literacy and technology specialists and teachers from the Gifted and Talented Education program to regular classrooms. If the state passes a schools budget before July 1, which is the beginning of the fiscal year, the displaced teachers may be returned to their original assignments.
Pam Locascio, a GATE teacher now assigned to teach English in a county middle school, said that while she and her peers are optimistic the budget problems will be resolved, they are afraid of what might happen.
"Because deep down this is a decision by people we have no control over," she said.
Joe Roberto, who has a daughter in third grade at Dorothy Eisenberg Elementary School, held a homemade banner Tuesday that read "Bob Beers for Governor" on one side and"Reopen the budget" on the other. Roberto said he is fully behind the Republican assemblyman, who has been targeted by the teachers union for his opposition to the tax plan.
"They need to separate the school funding from the taxes," Roberto said.
School Board member Denise Brodsky said that while she would have liked the Legislature to pass the education budget long ago, now that it's linked to the tax measures she doesn't think they can be separated.
Democratic leaders have argued that the education budget and tax increases cannot be considered separately because it would create an unbalanced budget, which state law doesn't allow.
School Board member Susan Brager-Wellman said at this point the legislators just need to approve the schools budget.
"We have got to get away from this being a political issue," she said.
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