Don’t blame arbitration for the Clark County School District’s budget woes

Victor Joecks’ whiny Jan. 3 commentary, “District teeters on the edge of insolvency,” is another example of complaining when things don’t go your way. Three times he blames the Clark County School District’s woes on “an unelected, unaccountable, out-of-state arbitrator.” Would Mr. Joecks have written the column in praise of this person if the decision supported your unstated position that district employees don’t deserve raises?

Mr. Joecks makes it seem that the arbitrator was randomly chosen by someone standing on a corner in, say, Sioux City, Iowa, and asking a passerby, “Do you want to be the arbitrator in a Nevada dispute?” Mr. Joecks knows better than that. This is how the negotiations process works. But he also seems to want to remove this option for the district’s unions.

What Mr. Joecks failed to do is direct his vision to lawmakers in Carson City who have underfunded our schools for years. Actually, he gave us an answer to the district’s financial woes towards the end of the column. Mr. Joecks noted that the budget problem didn’t come from reduced funding, but from the district budgeting for more than was received. Funding increased by $133.8 million with about half earmarked for the full-day kindergarten expansion. Well, instead of incorporating the $66.9 million into the general school funding, the Legislature should have fully funded the expansion as a stand-alone expenditure — and then increased district funding by the needed $133.8 million.

It wasn’t the arbitrator who caused the problem, it was the legislators in our capital.