Guinn budget eliminates computers-in-classrooms program

In 1997, as part of former Gov. Bob Miller's school upgrade efforts, $27 million was budgeted for a multi-year plan to put a computer in every classroom. Another $8.6 million was approved for training, repair, and maintenance of the computers.

But there's no money in Guinn's budget to continue the purchases.

Guinn has also eliminated a $2 million-a-year "School to Careers" program started in 1995, and cut the budget for student proficiency testing from $4.4 million to $1.1 million a year.

Even with the cuts, the Guinn administration says school aid is getting a bigger share of the state's budget than any time in the last 10 years.

Deputy budget chief Don Hataway told legislators that the governor has put aside $13 million to help schools where students aren't measuring up to standard. That's up from $3 million two years ago, which Hataway called "wholly lacking."

Legislative money committees also got a report showing the average pay for schoolteachers in Nevada is $39,131 and under a normal progression should rise to nearly $42,000 by the end of fiscal 2001.

The report also says a third of Nevada's public school students come from families with incomes low enough to qualify them for free or reduced lunches.

The profile also noted a disparity in the race of students and teachers. Eighty-eight percent of the more than 18,000 teachers are white, 3.9 percent Hispanic and 4.8 percent black. About 63 percent of the students are white, 20.5 percent Hispanic and 9.7 percent black.

Nevada's high school dropout rate, one of the highest in the nation, rose from 9.4 percent in 1995-96 to 9.9 percent in 1996-97. The highest rates were recorded among Hispanics at 15.7 percent; American Indians, 12.6 percent; and blacks at 12.3 percent.

Still, there was some good news in the profile. Nevada's fourth- and eighth-graders scored near or slightly above the national averages in reading, mathematics and language.

After nearly 10 years, it's still unclear whether a class-size reduction program in primary grades has produced better results.

Fourth-grade students who were in smaller classes in their first- and second-grade years generally scored better in reading, language and math than the pupils in regular-sized classes, the profile showed.

But the study by the state Department of Education shows students with reduced class sizes only in the second grade scored at the same level or better than those who had two years of smaller classes.

And Hispanic students who didn't participate in smaller classes scored better than those who had two years of reduced classes.

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