Legislature making real progress toward improving higher education

As the 2021 session of the Nevada Legislature draws to a close, lawmakers are on course to pass several bills that would boost UNLV and higher education across the state.

Among recent positive steps in Carson City:

• Last week, the state Senate sent the Assembly a measure to appropriate $25 million toward construction of the new instructional facility for the UNLV School of Medicine, restoring a state funding commitment that had been clawed back during the recession. Assuming it clears the Assembly and is approved by Gov. Steve Sisolak — and it should be — the state funding is a fantastic investment in the health and well-being of Southern Nevadans and in the entire state’s economy. The building, which is well under construction, will allow the med school to expand to its original capacity of 120-member classes, which will create an infusion of medical professionals into the region. That in turn will help Las Vegas attract medical service providers and other businesses.

• The Senate Finance Committee also advanced a bill that would affirm the status of UNLV and the Desert Research Institute as land-grant institutions on par with UNR. That measure would put an end to ambiguity over whether UNLV and DRI were second-class institutions barred from accessing streams of federal funding offered only to schools that were established through federal land grants. Should the bill pass, it would remove barriers to UNLV and DRI receiving federal research funding and would specify that all three institutions are part of the University of Nevada system, much like the University of California has campuses in Berkeley, Irvine, San Francisco, etc.

• The Assembly joined the Senate last week in passage of a resolution to place Ballot Question 1 from the 2020 election back on the ballot. The ballot question, which called for the Nevada Board of Regents to be removed from the state constitution to pave the way for reforms in higher education oversight in Nevada, failed by a narrow margin amid concerns that Nevada voters had misunderstood its intent. With the passage of the resolution this year, it will come back for consideration in the 2023 session. Should it pass then, the question will go back on the ballot.

• The House passed a bill requested by Sisolak’s office to form a study committee on community college governance structure and funding. This measure, which got its first hearing in a Senate committee this past week, falls in line with Sisolak’s vision of creating an independent oversight authority for Nevada’s community colleges, which are now under NSHE’s umbrella along with the four-year schools. In breaking the community colleges off, Sisolak’s goal is to focus them more on job training.

Lawmakers should bring each of these measures to the finish line.

Between north-south funding inequities that historically have favored UNR and chronic mismanagement by the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) and the Nevada Board of Regents, which are the equivalent of a school board in a public school district, higher ed in Nevada has been held back from meeting its potential — especially UNLV. And while the current community college presidents say they support remaining under NSHE, several former presidents — who are no longer under any political restraints from criticizing the system — say changes in oversight are needed.

We still believe that Ballot Question 1, which we fervently supported in 2020, is a fundamental key to elevating the state’s universities and colleges to their full potential.

The way the regents are worded in the state constitution can be interpreted as making them a fourth branch of government, free of oversight by the Legislature and the governor’s office. Removing them from the document would end any uncertainty over the wording, which would allow lawmakers to restructure the oversight and bring more accountability to the system.

That needs to happen. The 13-member board, whose positions are all elected, has become a swamp plagued by abuses of authority, micromanaging, a lack of transparency and incompetence. It tends to draw lackluster candidates — among its current members, one was elected despite having posted a great deal of virulently anti-Muslim material on social media, and another is a former postal carrier with no college degree who acknowledged that he ran for the board because it was the only position for which he was qualified.

Nevada deserves better, possibly through the creation of a hybrid board in which some positions are elected and others are appointed, or by moving oversight of the system under the governor’s office.

The best structure for Nevada remains to be seen, but the first step is to remove the regents from the constitution so lawmakers can begin discussing options.

While the ballot question failed last fall, it’s telling that Clark County approved it by a comfortable margin — a clear indication that residents here are unsatisfied with the second-rate treatment of UNLV and other institutions in our region by the regents and NSHE. The question also drew the fewest votes of any of the five on the ballot, which indicates that many voters didn’t understand it or grasp its purpose. Those are both legitimate reasons to bring it before voters again.

This time around, should the question advance through the 2023 session and go on the ballot, it will be critical for supporters to sharpen their message and ensure that voters know what the question would accomplish.

Meanwhile, lawmakers should stay the course on these and other higher-ed bills this year. If these proposals make it through the process, the 2021 session will be a positive one for Southern Nevada and the entire state.