VICTOR JOECKS: School organization teams under bipartisan attack

One of Nevada’s most popular education reforms, allowing schools to set their own budgets, is on the chopping block.

Last week, the Senate Education Committee heard Senate Bill 282, which would revise several provisions related to school organizational teams. These groups, comprised primarily of staff and parents, give principals input on the operations and budgets of their schools. This power came from a 2017 law that reorganized the Clark County School District and gave significant autonomy to individual schools. The goal was to move away from top-down dictates, empowering those closest to the campus to make more decisions.

Schools don’t have complete authority, but it’s better than the alternative. Those who are closest to the situation are both more invested and more knowledgeable. One of the things many organizational teams have done is save money. Those funds are supposed to be held in reserve for that school to use as the team thinks best.

But that may not be the law for long.

Democrat state Sen. Rochelle Nguyen, sponsor of SB282, also presented an amendment that would allow schools to save only 1 percent of their annual spending. Schools would lose the money if they didn’t spend their extra funds on tutoring, social-emotional learning or extracurricular activities.

She’s not the only one seeking this change. Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo’s omnibus education bill has a lot of great stuff in it. But it would allow schools to carry forward only 2 percent of their budget. The priority for the excess money would become “deferred maintenance” at the school.

Either plan represents a significant loss of local autonomy. It’s concerning that this idea has support from some Republicans and Democrats. It’s also a stark reversal from what happened three years ago.

In a 2020 special session, the Legislature initially sought a bill to take away those carry over dollars from schools. Go figure that Superintendent Jesus Jara doesn’t like having significantly less power than previous superintendents. He’s long wanted access to the money saved by individual campuses.

But the bill was so unpopular that Jara, then-Gov. Steve Sisolak and legislative leaders started blaming each other for its existence.

The Clark County Education Association has also long been salivating over getting access to that money. The schools, in aggregate, are sitting on close to $250 million. The money comes in large part from savings created when schools can’t hire enough teachers. Substitutes cost less. CCEA Executive Director John Vellardita claims the money should be spent immediately to help students.

In some situations, that argument would have merit. But it can be hard to spend money effectively when there’s a massive teacher shortage. Local leaders, not Carson City politicians, know best if that money could be spent well or not. “Use it or lose it” is an invitation for wasteful spending.

The union’s hypocrisy here is off the charts. What those students need most are quality teachers. But the union has been fighting district and principal efforts to offer bonuses to attract more teachers to those schools.

This whole debate is unintentionally making the case for school choice. But until that happens, Lombardo and the Legislature need to defend, not defund, local autonomy.

Contact Victor Joecks at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on Twitter.