The Nevada Legislative Session is over and the results are mixed for Nevada students, according to Tom Greene, Senior regional legislative director, Excel in Ed in Action.
On Monday, Senate Education Committee chair Mo Denis, D-Las Vegas, released a new education funding formula. For years, many Democrat politicians have criticized the current education funding formula, called the Nevada Plan. They claim it’s old and outdated. Their biggest beef is that it doesn’t allocate more money for students who are English Language Learners or live in poverty. The theory is that it’s harder to educate those students and so they need additional services, which costs additional money.
Across the country, restorative justice is lowering test scores and increasing the number of students who feel unsafe at schools. That’s according to Max Eden, a senior fellow with the Manhattan Institute, who recently released a study discipline reform.
Nevada’s students have a major problem. They aren’t very good at reading. In 2017, just 31 percent of fourth graders were proficient at reading according to the National Assessment of Education Progress. The number proficient falls to 28 percent in eighth grade. Read by Three could change that. If a student can’t read at grade level by the end of third grade, he repeats the grade.
Over the next two years, Gov. Steve Sisolak plans to gut and eliminate Brian Sandoval’s major education reforms. It’s all to benefit the government unions who backed his campaign.
Gov. Steve Sisolak shouldn’t count on Senate Republican support for his desired tax hike. Collective bargaining for state workers would drive up costs, and Nevada should expand Opportunity Scholarships. That’s according to Sen. Ben Kieckhefer, R-Reno.
Nevada education needs more money combined with accountability, but it’s too early to promise funding for Education Savings Accounts. There also isn’t a way to repeal the commerce tax next legislative session and a gubernatorial debate isn’t happening after Steve Sisolak rejected an invitation to debate on statewide TV. That’s according to Republican gubernatorial candidate and current Nevada attorney general Adam Laxalt.
Following four years of work and lengthy discussion on the need for better prepared high school graduates, the State Board of Education adopted new criteria for a standard high school diploma on Thursday. The requirements were increased from 22.5 credits to 23, adding two credits to demonstrate college or career readiness while reducing elective courses from 7.5 to 6 credits. The changes will take effect beginning with Nevada’s class of 2022, or next year’s freshmen. The change in the diploma reflects a change in need — board Vice President Mark Newburn noted that far fewer jobs require only a high school diploma or less today than was the case in the 1970s.