Sisolak, CCSD, and CCEA on collision course

When it comes to handling education issues, Gov. Steve Sisolak is getting schooled.

Last week, the Clark County School District presented a tentative budget that didn’t contain any raises for teachers. That’s despite Sisolak promising to give teachers a 3 percent pay hike through his proposed budget.

“We don’t have the money that the governor promised,” Jason Goudie, the district’s chief financial officer, said in a meeting with the Review-Journal’s editorial board Tuesday.

A 3 percent raise would cost the district around $60 million. The district says it’s guaranteed to receive only $55 million more from the state. The district’s general fund is currently $2.4 billion. The district says the new money is needed to pay for increases in special education, Public Employees’ Retirement System contributions and opening new schools.

Goudie says the district is using its most conservative estimates to ensure it doesn’t plan on spending money it won’t have. That’s in contrast to last school year, when the district spent months moaning about budget cuts — but not because its budget went down. The district had planned to increase spending by around $200 million. Its budget went up by “only” $134 million, which triggered the apocalyptic rhetoric. Around half of that spending increase went to fund full-day kindergarten.

While conservative projections are the right way to go, they’re also in the district’s financial interests. By crying poverty now, the district is increasing pressure on legislators to send it more money. The real test comes next year, when district leaders have a political incentive to manufacture a budget crisis by using — once again — inflated revenue estimates.

Regardless, the district’s position is creating political problems for Sisolak. He made higher spending on education one of his campaign’s priorities. He pledged to reduce overcrowding and give teachers a raise. He hasn’t even tried to reduce class size. Instead of delivering the raise, he’s pointing fingers.

“I hope CCSD and all our school districts share my commitment to making sure our hardworking educators get the long-overdue raise they deserve,” Sisolak said in a statement.

Sisolak would be better off noting that teachers received $136 million in raises in 2016. The Clark County Education Association also won an arbitration case last year that increased teacher compensation. Instead, he’s making it sound as if teachers haven’t had a raise in years. That’s flat-out false.

But it’s exactly the kind of misinformation the union would use to justify going on strike. As I told you last week, the union is laying the groundwork for an illegal strike.

Even the threat of a strike reflects poorly on Sisolak because the CCEA endorsed him in the Democrat primary. This organization should have been one of his best allies. Instead, it’s preparing to embarrass him.

For his part, Superintendent Jesus Jara is trying to get the Legislature to move $60 million from some categorical funds to the district’s general fund. That would fund the 3 percent raise — which still may not satisfy the union.

This is why then-Gov. Brian Sandoval insisted on categorical funding. Giving the district unrestricted dollars will inevitably lead to paying the same people more for doing the same thing. Notice that no one is even bothering to pretend pay hikes will increase student achievement.

Sisolak talked a lot about education during the campaign. He should have spent more time coming up with an actual plan.

Victor Joecks’ column appears in the Opinion section each Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Listen to him discuss his columns each Monday at 9 a.m. with Kevin Wall on 790 Talk Now. Contact him at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on Twitter.