VICTOR JOECKS: Sisolak lost CCEA’s endorsement despite implementing its agenda

By not endorsing Gov. Steve Sisolak, the Clark County Education Association inadvertently admitted its policies don’t improve education.

On Tuesday, the Las Vegas teachers union released an unexpected bombshell. It won’t be endorsing in the governor’s race between Sisolak, a Democrat, and Republican Joe Lombardo.

The shocking thing about this isn’t that most teacher unions reflexively back Democrats. It’s that Sisolak and the union have been close allies for years. It heavily supported him in a bitter 2018 primary against Chris Giunchigliani — a former CCEA president. The union favored Sisolak because “his strategic vision aligns with CCEA’s,” union spokeswoman Christina Cober said at the time. Sisolak may not have won without the union’s support.

Now the union is blasting Sisolak. Officials said he didn’t present them with a plan to address issues such as class sizes, educator vacancies, school violence and learning loss. This was obvious four years ago, but nice of the union to finally notice.

Sisolak’s education policies have been terrible, but he didn’t ignore education during his first term. Instead, he’s largely adhered to the union agenda. He proposed some money for teacher raises in 2019, although not as much as he claimed. Later that year, the union threatened an illegal strike against the Clark County School District in a contract dispute. Sisolak didn’t tell the union to stop. He blamed the district.

In 2019, the Legislature gutted the retention requirement in the state’s Read by 3 program, an action the union supported. Students would have been held back if they weren’t reading proficiently. They would have benefited struggling students by ensuring they could read. But parents would have been furious to find out their children were so far behind. That would have led to uncomfortable questions about teacher performance. Sisolak signed that bill.

The union supported state worker collective bargaining and asked Sisolak about it before endorsing him in 2018. “When he said yes, we knew he was our candidate,” the union tweeted in April 2019.

Leave aside the short-sightedness of a teachers union supporting a policy that will leave less money for education. Sisolak signed that into law.

The CCEA wanted the Legislature to pass a new education funding formula. It did in 2021, and Sisolak signed it into law. It wanted a tax hike to increase funding. Sisolak signed a mining tax increase into law. The union said it “appreciate(d) the efforts” of the governor. The union supported a bill extending school districts’ bonding authority without a popular vote. Sisolak signed it.

The union now wants Sisolak to revisit a restorative justice law passed in 2019. It supported a restorative justice bill at the time, however. In contrast, the Nevada State Education Association, a rival teachers union, testified neutral over safety concerns.

Don’t miss the big picture. Sisolak implemented the CCEA’s agenda again and again. The results have been so terrible that the union can’t bring itself to re-endorse him.

The union officials may never realize — or at least admit — their preferred policies won’t improve education, but voters should.

Victor Joecks’ column appears in the Opinion section each Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Contact him at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on Twitter.