Education gets increases in proposed budget

Tuesday, June 1, 1999 | 7:22 a.m.

Highlights of the $1.76 billion earmarked for education over the next two years:

PUBLIC SCHOOLS: Allocates $1.12 billion, or about 35 percent of all state funds, for elementary and secondary schools. Gov. Kenny Guinn says that's the highest percentage of funding for K-12 programs in 10 years.

HIGHER ED: Allocates $608.6 million, or 19.2 percent, on community colleges and two state universities.

PER PUPIL DOLLARS: Spending per pupil in K-12 classrooms will be $3,806 in 2000 and $3,804 in 2001. Class-size reduction funds will be rolled into this category but kept as a separate line-item at $82.9 million in fiscal 2000 and $86.9 million in 2001.

MILLENNIUM SCHOLARSHIPS: Guinn proposes spending millions of dollars from a national tobacco settlement for a new scholarship program. Scholarships would be up to $2,500 a year for a university student.

STATE LIBRARY: Cuts spending from $7 million to $6 million for the Nevada State Library.

HANDICAPPED: Cuts funding for education of handicapped persons to from $2.5 million to $735,476.

CAREERS: Cuts funding for Schools to Careers program from $4 million to $2 million.

PROFICIENCY: Cuts funding for proficiency testing from $5.4 million to $1.7 million. Adds $900,000 a year to contract out testing to a private company. Includes $4.3 million a year for remediation programs and a one shot appropriation of $300,000 to fund remediation this summer for students who failed the proficiency test.

LAW SCHOOL: Earmarks $11.5 million for the UNLV law school.