Law would decimate CCSD’s budget, shift funding from neediest students

By Sylvia Lazos

Friday, July 29, 2016 | 2 a.m.

The Clark County School District is in the process of transformation. The aim is for CCSD to become more efficient and more accountable so each and every child, no matter where she or he lives and no matter the level of education attained by her or his parents, has a quality education.

The state, with bipartisan and wide community support, has put in motion multiple education reforms; 25 reform bills were passed in 2015 alone. The district reorganization committee has put in motion a new “school autonomy” structure that will change how the district manages and funds schools.

Within a year, each principal will control a budget that is funded based on students and their needs, not average teacher salaries. This summer, CCSD trustees adopted a master plan to close the achievement gaps experienced by English-language learners and English speakers who enter school behind in language and vocabulary. Experts have lauded this plan as “cutting-edge” and “revolutionary.”

The new voucher law, also known as SB 302, is threatening this progress. This law takes away money from public school budgets to fund private schools, which are not accountable for their use of taxpayer funds, not governed democratically, not performance-rated and not obligated by law to bargain collectively with licensed teachers (in fact, private schools can hire unlicensed personnel).

Judge James Wilson of the First Judicial District Court has wisely halted implementation of the voucher law until Nevada courts can determine if it is constitutional. Because of this injunction, CCSD did not have to cut $27 million from the 2016-17 school budget.

How would the district have come up with a balanced budget in the face of such a massive cut? In the past, the district has managed budget cuts by 1) increasing class sizes in grades 4-12, 2) cutting nonacademic programs, 3) trimming teachers’ professional learning and 4) putting on hold innovation programs.

Cuts, triggered by ESA vouchers, certainly will affect CCSD reform efforts. For example, increasing class sizes, particularly in already-overcrowded middle and high schools, inevitably affects classroom learning, and that is eventually reflected in high school graduation rates and college preparation. Teenagers learn best when teachers can individualize learning and create engaging classes. That does not happen in overcrowded classrooms.

I have seen firsthand how professional learning opportunities provided by the district can be a lifeline for the more than 4,000 first-year teachers. To implement CCSD reorganization, funds will have to be found for extensive retraining of 360 principals. Professional development is usually viewed as “optional.”

All the evidence thus far shows that the ESA voucher program will mostly serve affluent families and children who are already doing well in school. The most recent study on private school vouchers, “Evaluation of Ohio’s EdChoice Scholarship Program: Selection, Competition and Performance Effects,” focuses on Ohio’s EdChoice program, in existence since 2005. Education Choice Scholarships are now provided to more than 18,000 Ohio students. The report concludes, “We find evidence that the program attracts relatively high-scoring and comparatively advantaged eligible students” (though these students are still overwhelmingly low-scoring and disadvantaged as a group, relative to the state as a whole).

Vouchers do not automatically lead to better student outcomes. That is the purpose of Nevada’s education-reform effort and the new taxes enacted by the Legislature to support these reforms.

Public education can transform lives. More than 150 years ago the founders of our state made public education the foremost obligation of Nevada government. Implementation of the SB 302 voucher program will undermine our state’s constitutional obligation to public education and the ongoing reforms that the Legislature, the superintendent of public instruction, and the CCSD trustees and administrators are working hard to put in place for the benefit of ach of the 360,000 children we are charged with educating.

Sylvia Lazos is the policy director of Educate Nevada Now, which was launched by the Rogers Foundation and other partners to campaign for school finance reform and improve education outcomes and opportunities for Nevada public school children.