Tuesday, June 17, 2003 | 8:51 a.m.
The Legislature's failure to pass a spending plan to match the $4.95 billion state budget has created upheaval in the lives of school administrators, teachers, prospective teachers, students and parents. Within the Clark County School District, with its 250,000-plus students, a normal summer is hectic enough. In addition to serving 70,000 students in its year-round program, the district spends summers preparing for the fall semester. Teachers are hired -- a lengthy process -- and assigned to classrooms. It's always just short of a miracle when school opens with everyone in place.
This fall, with the nightmare that's been thrust upon them, administrators will truly have performed a miracle if schools open and every course has a qualified teacher. The nightmare was created by legislators who dithered away the regular session of the 2003 Legislature and two weeks of a special session without agreeing on a tax plan. The Clark County School District had anticipated hiring 1,600 teachers this summer, most of them before July 1. Because the money for paying teachers comes from the state, everything is now stalled. A majority of the teachers come from outside of Nevada and depend on their signing bonus to pay for moving expenses. But now their salaries cannot even be guaranteed, let alone their bonuses.
The plan the school district is preparing, in anticipation of a hiring shortfall, calls for reassigning more than 400 teacher specialists. It's all but certain now that students who need extra help in reading will be under-served in the coming semester, as teachers who specialize in that area will be reassigned to regular classrooms. Also among those planned for reassignment are the specialists in the Gifted and Talented Education program, which means the program will be shelved, at least temporarily.
While the current upheaval is bad enough, there will be a true crisis if the special session, when reconvened June 25, doesn't result in a quick end to the impasse. The state's fiscal year expires June 30. Without legislative spending approval for the new fiscal year beginning July 1, upheaval will begin affecting more state services. We'd like to think Nevada's 63 legislators are putting their time before June 25 to good use by thinking about all the people negatively affected by their inaction. They should go to Carson City on June 25 ready to quickly and fairly provide for the state's needs.
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