These are the education bills that have advocates steaming

By Ian Whitaker

Friday, March 20, 2015 | 2 a.m.

Even though Gov. Brian Sandoval made it the focal point of his new budget and vision for a “new Nevada,” education is off to a rocky start in the Legislature.

In February, an otherwise uncontroversial bill to let school districts build new schools was largely overshadowed by a partisan debate over wages for construction workers. Then it was an endless debate about whether students should be allowed to carry guns on campus, an issue that state records show affects less than 10 people each year.

This week, lawmakers brought forth a host of new education bills. Here are three that have education officials steaming:

SB 290 — Repealing Common Core

Introduced by Sen. Scott Hammond

Think of any dirty word and it’s probably been hurled in the direction of the Common Core standards, a national effort designed to reduce wild disparities in what kids learn from state to state.

It’s no different in Nevada, where the hysteria has reached the state Legislature in the form of a bill to eliminate the standards completely. Championed by anti-Common Core activists like John Eppolito of Nevadans Against Common Core, the bill is supported by a contingent of far-right lawmakers. They decry the standards as untested, confusing and too willing to link high-stakes exams with teacher evaluations.

High-stakes testing is perhaps the most commonly agreed-upon criticism of the standards. But repealing the standards themselves is pretty unpopular with most education officials, who say it's an irresponsible way to express dissatisfaction.

For one, districts and the state have spent millions to roll out the standards and prepare a suitable test to assess them. That’s to say nothing of what it will cost the state to drop everything and look for new ones, a process that could take at least three years, according to the state department of education.

“It would undo more than four years of work. It’s bad policy,” said Nevada Superintendent Dale Erquiaga. “We don’t change standards on a dime, we change standards thoughtfully.”

The state is only two years away from its next standards audit, upon which Common Core will be up for review. Seth Rau, policy director for business-oriented think tank Nevada Succeeds, said opponents should bring their concerns up then, rather than suddenly derailing years of work.

“It’s not sudden,” said Sen. Hammond. “It’s been going on throughout the country.”

He’s right about that. Many states have seen similar legislation to repeal Common Core. Hammond said he doesn’t buy Erquiaga’s claim that any new standards would take years to put in place.

”I don’t know why people are buying into this idea that you have to train teachers [to teach the standards],” he said. “Standards are supposed to be clear. It boggles my mind.”

Hammond wants to replace the Common Core with standards previously used by high-performing districts in Massachusetts. But that state threw those standards out in favor of Common Core in 2010.

Eppolito, a former teacher, called Common Core a “massive experiment” on students.

Piggybacking on populist backlash against the standards, people like Eppolito have managed to bend the ear of lawmakers this session, though such legislation is not expected to go anywhere.

Eppolito claims the standards have resulted in lower scores in the state. But according to fourth grade reading and math marks logged by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, Nevada’s students have been steadily improving for years.

SB 228 — Restricting data collection on students

Introduced by Sen. Don Gustavson

If this bill passes, we can say goodbye to most data collection on students in Nevada. The legislation would only let education officials collect information if a parent signs a permission slip. Students whose parents forget to sign or choose not to would be opted out. Proponents say it will prevent personal information from getting into the wrong hands.

What it would actually do is prevent access to a lot of information that parents and schools rely on, according to Rachel Anderson of the D.C.-based Data Quality Campaign. That includes test scores, demographic information and even things like GPA. Want to know if your child is eligible to receive financial aid or scholarships? If colleges can’t pull GPAs, scholarships are unlikely.

Opponents say it would constitute a disaster for the state’s current accountability systems, such as the Nevada Report Card, which uses exactly the kind of information that would be restricted under the bill.

“This could potentially have an enormous impact on the services that the state provides,” Anderson said. “Districts would now be responsible for aggregating and formatting data before sending it to the state, which would be much more burdensome.”

While CCSD officials believe people’s concerns about security are legitimate, they said not being able to release the data would prevent them from following state accountability requirements.

“It means no accountability, no resources to deliver a test, no public report card and no system to evaluate teachers,” Erquiaga said.

It could also mean the state might lose out on $115 million in Title I funds. States are required to submit information about graduation rates and student achievement to qualify.

A similar bill passed in Louisiana last year was so poorly written that schools had to think twice about whether hanging art with a student’s name on the wall constituted a violation of state law.

Gustavson couldn’t be reached for comment, but Eppolito, who was involved in the creation of the legislation, said current data collection practices constitute a “cradle to grave tracking system.”

Instead of SB228, Erquiaga said he would support AB221, a similar bill that would keep the security provisions while removing the requirement that each parent sign off.

SB 287 — Requiring all elementary students learn cursive

Introduced by Sen. Don Gustavson

Cursive is definitely not as controversial as the other two, but officials in Clark County were more than a little confused by the bill. Common Core standards currently don’t include teaching cursive, and a state spokeswoman said they’ve never been a part of Nevada’s standards before.

“I actually think the bill is a little misguided,” said CCSD lobbyist Joyce Haldeman. “They ought to be working with the state board to ask them to put it in the standards.”