Legislators get rundown of education facts, figures

CARSON CITY -- The average pay for schoolteachers in Nevada is $39,131 and under normal progression should rise to close to $42,000 by the end of fiscal year 2001.

A new state profile of schools shows a third of their students come from poor families and are eligible for free or reduced lunches.

The profile was outlined Wednesday by state Superintendent of Public Instruction Mary Peterson for the budget committees of the Legislature, which heard testimony on Gov. Kenny Guinn's proposed education budget.

The profile also showed 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.

More troubling, 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, legislators were told. The highest rates were recorded among Hispanics at 15.7 percent; American Indians, 12.6 percent; and blacks at 12.3 percent.

The problem is statewide, Peterson said, not limited to urban areas such as Las Vegas where, Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, pointed out, a youngster can leave school and work as a parking attendant earning $60,000 a year.

She said she recently visited Elko and talked to a busboy who left school. He told her he didn't like school and was earning $18,000 a year.

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 is still unclear whether the class-size reduction program in the 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 who had reduced classes 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 did not participate in smaller classes scored better than those who had two years of reduced classes.

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