Nevada teachers unions run hot and cold on Lombardo’s school plans

By Hillary Davis (contact)

Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023 | 2 a.m.

The Clark County Education Association, Nevada’s largest teachers union, didn’t endorse Joe Lombardo last year in his gubernatorial race against incumbent Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak. But the union on Tuesday responded positively to the new Republican governor’s proposal to raise per-pupil funding for Nevada public school children.

Lombardo’s proposal, which calls for weighting low-income students, English language learners and gifted children the most, would enhance education by $2 billion over the biennium, increasing per-pupil funding by $2,116 to $12,406 in the 2024 fiscal year, which begins July 1, and to $12,881 by the 2025 fiscal year.

“This kind of investment is unprecedented and has been a long time coming,” the union, which bargains for more than 18,000 Clark County School District teachers, said in a statement after Lombardo’s first State of the State Address. “The current success of the pupil-centered funding plan is the result of years of legislative efforts first started in 2019 and finalized in 2021. Long-term solutions take long-term efforts.”

But Lombardo’s plan didn’t fully address the state’s teacher shortage crisis, officials with the Nevada State Education Association (NSEA) said after Monday’s speech.

The continuing teacher shortage statewide is the result of a confluence of poor pay and lack of respect for the profession that brings down Nevada’s schools, the union argues. Although, the starting pay for a teacher in the Clark County School District was increased 16% to $50,115 in late May.

“We heard no bold proposals to fix the ongoing crisis in our schools,” NSEA president and Washoe County music teacher Dawn Etcheverry said in a statement. “Instead, Gov. Lombardo dusted off a failed voucher scheme that will do nothing to improve the quality of education in Nevada. Transferring more public tax dollars to private schools is the wrong answer.”

That “scheme” is Lombardo’s plan to allocate $50 million for Opportunity Scholarships and related tax credits, which would allow parents to use public dollars on a private education, a cornerstone promise the former Clark County sheriff made on the campaign trail.

Lombardo doesn’t use the term “vouchers.” He uses the term “school choice,” and promises to float legislation to establish an Office of School Choice within the Nevada Department of Education to give families information on private, charter and other options outside of traditional public school.

That would include access to private schools using tax credit-fueled scholarships. NSEA, for one, calls that a diversion of funds that would “undermine support for public education and contribute to re-segregation.”

NSEA calls its own platform “Time for 20,” which calls for 20% raises for teachers, no less than $20 per hour for support professionals, and maximum class sizes of 20 students statewide, and the association said those “planks” were evident in Sisolak’s budget highlights.

“It focused on what we believe at NSEA is the main priority that public education is facing right now, which is, you have a bunch of educators who no longer see this profession as livable,” NSEA spokesman Alexander Marks said in an interview. “People don’t want to go into teaching or education anymore, and I think (Sisolak’s) budget understood that, because it was focused not only on attracting teachers to the profession but keeping them there.”

Marks also said the Sisolak budget — which the administration prepared in its final days, even though the Lombardo team will submit a final budget ahead of the upcoming legislative session — aligned with the bipartisan Commission on School Funding recommendations, which acknowledged that expanded property and sales taxes were needed to invest optimally in education.

The NSEA likewise didn’t endorse Lombardo — it backed Sisolak, while CCEA declined to endorse any gubernatorial candidate. Both unions, though, said they looked forward to working with the new administration — one in which Lombardo must reach across the aisle to get any legislation through a majority-Democratic Nevada Senate and supermajority-Democratic Assembly.

CCSD Superintendent Jesus Jara echoed CCEA in applauding Lombardo’s per-pupil funding plan, which, with its weighting, reduces “equity gaps.”

Lombardo said he expected to see results from the infusion of funds into schools.

“I won’t accept a lack of funding as an excuse for underperformance,” he said. “ I’ll be working with the state superintendent to ensure our systems of accountability and transparency are robust and enforced. And if we don’t begin seeing results, I’ll be standing here in two years calling for systematic changes to the governance and leadership in K-12 education.”

Jara seemed to accept the challenge.

“We are confident that families will continue to choose CCSD for their child’s education,” Jara said in a statement. “We look forward to working with the Legislature to ensure that we have proper accountability systems in place to produce the best outcomes for Nevada’s students.”