Governor-elect welcomes new school district superintendent

"That’s great news," Sandoval said. "I’m very excited about working with you."

In his gubernatorial campaign, the Republican candidate advocated rating schools with letter grades and making school vouchers available so children could use public funding for private school tuition.

"I was going to accuse him of taking his plan directly from Colorado, but I guess that’s not what happened," said Jones, the former Colorado education commissioner.

"Well that’s a compliment, yeah," Sandoval responded enthusiastically.

Jones said Sandoval’s proposals are for what "we’ve been working really hard in the state of Colorado, but equally …. in Florida, Milwaukee, and some other states you highlighted."

When asked about vouchers, Jones said, "I think we’re going to have a conversation about that. Certainly, we have a school district in Colorado that’s bringing that forward."

In Douglas County, an affluent suburb of Denver, school vouchers have been discussed but officials have not formalized a plan, according to the Denver Post.

In 2003, Colorado approved a school voucher plan but the state Supreme Court later struck it down as unconstitutional.

Jones started his first day of work on Wednesday as Clark County superintendent. Jones, Sandoval and outgoing Superintendent Walt Rulffes were expected to discuss budget issues.

Sandoval has pledged not to raise taxes at a time when state officials face creating a 2011-13 budget with a serious shortfall in revenue. It’s now estimated that state tax revenues during the next two-year budget period will be $5.33 billion, or about $1 billion less than current spending.

The situation has state school systems bracing for the possible loss of 10 percent or more of their state support, which is $2.6 billion in the current budget.

Rulffes, whose last day of work is Friday, said he was glad that education was "getting the attention it needs."

Contact James Haug at jhaug@reviewjournal.com or 702-799-2922.