Lawmakers solidify spending plan for Nevada’s K-12 schools

By Las Vegas Sun Staff (contact)

Saturday, May 16, 2015 | 2:13 p.m.

A joint budget committee Saturday approved money to prepare pupils to read by the time they’re in third grade; for putting computers in middle schools; and to enhance the high school graduation rate.

The Assembly Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee held a special weekend meeting in which they also allocated money for increasing the number of charter schools in Nevada, extra funds for low-performing schools in high-poverty areas and increased funding for disabled students.

The committees approved $2.8 billion as the state’s share of basic school support for educating the estimated 455,000 students by 2017. The schools also receive other funds including federal money for supporting programs.

The basic budget does not provide across-the-board salary increases for teachers in the coming two years. But districts can use other funds for raises. Guaranteed basic support for a student was $5,590 in 2014, and that will be reduced to $5,669 next fiscal year, then raised to $5,715 in 2017.

That is the state’s basic support, and the other money flowing to school districts increases the per-pupil expenditure.

The average salary for teachers in fiscal year was $53,095 — and $74,077 when benefits are added.

Gov. Brian Sandoval, who has made improving education a priority, recommended an additional $235 million over the next two years for new or bolstered programs. But the committees scaled back some of the spending recommended by the governor.

The committees reduced the governor’s proposed education budget by about $100 million, according to Mike Willden, chief of staff for the governor.

Sandoval proposed $36.1 million for the anti-bulling program; the committees cut that in half.

The student-teacher ratio is 16-1 for grades of one and two and 19-1 in third grade. Some members questioned whether this ratio was effective. The committees rolled that back to 17-1 in grades one and two and 20-1 in grade three.

Schools can seek waivers from this requirement.

That action saved more than $40 million, and that was transferred into the Career and Technical Education program. In fiscal 2013, the graduation rate for students in this program was 84 percent.

The meeting lasted six hours and at the end Sen. Ben Kieckhefer, R-Reno, said the decisions will make “significant strides” in Nevada’s educational system, which has been rated at or near the lowest in the nation by various agencies.