School money shortage addressed

Valerie Miller

Friday, May 19, 2000 | 10:25 a.m.

A shortage of teachers and a shortage of money to pay for their raises prompted a meeting Thursday between members of the Legislature and the Clark County School Board.

Held at the studio of Channel 10, the public TV station operated by the school district, the meeting came one day after the school district had to transfer $20 million from school programs to a fund that will provide teachers with 2.5 percent raises over the next two years.

The transfer was necessary because the 1999 Legislature did not allocate any money for teacher pay raises, an inaction that teachers fought through arbitration. The arbitrator decided upon the 2.5 percent raises, necessitating the school to take money from other areas of the budget to pay the raises.

An additional $14.5 million also had to be cut from programs in order to cover costs due to inflation and growth that were not covered by the Legislature.

Carlos Garcia, who will replace retiring Superintendent Brian Cram in July, attended Thursday's meeting. Garcia, currently serving as superintendent of the school district in Fresno, Calif., said he was taken aback when he learned of this strain on the district's $1.1 billion budget.

"I've never in my life liked to do anything easy, so I guess I've come to the right place," Garcia said.

Tight budgets are not new to Garcia.

"In California, in the early 1990s, we had to cut so many programs from schools that it was eventually bare bones," he said. "It took us 10 years to recover from that. But I hope that it doesn't take us a decade here, because the students can't afford to wait that long."

School funding in California is making a turnaround, though.

"After next year, California will be spending more than $1,000 more a student than Nevada does, which will bring it near the national average," Garcia said. "Right now, both Nevada and California are below the national average."

In Nevada, statewide funding has been reduced per student from $3,632 this fiscal year to $3,630 per student for the next fiscal year. When local funding is included, overall per-student spending will raise slightly from $4,771 this year to $4,806 next year.

"At the point we are at now, when our funding remains flat and we have no (allowance for) inflationary costs, every new student enrolling in the district puts us further behind," Cram told legislators Thursday.

The $34.5 million lost from school programs for fiscal year 2000-2001 was the largest during his 11 years as superintendent, Cram said.

"We are going to be less competitive in recruiting teachers, and we'll have less money for textbooks and other materials," Cram said. "With the tremendous growth and this current budget, we will continue to fall behind for every (new) student."

Legislators at the meeting proposed alternative ways to help the school district, with Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, suggesting added education funding from his proposed gaming tax increase.

Under Neal's proposal, which he is trying to get on the ballot through a petition he is circulating statewide, $388 million a year could be generated from the increase in gaming tax. Neal proposes that 45 percent of that revenue, or close to $175 million, go toward supporting kindergarten through 12th-grade education.

"Gaming has created this enormous growth, so gaming should pay for it," Neal said. "If more money is needed for schools, then that is going to mean more taxes somewhere. I say let's tax gaming, and let them (the gaming industry) finally pay their fair share."

State Sen. Valerie Wiener, D-Las Vegas, said she would consider working with the district to form more public-private partnerships between the school district and businesses to help increase revenue and resources.

"A lot of time the businesses will say yes, but they have to be asked first," Wiener said.

Wiener also attributed the shortage of school funding as partially due to the enormous need for funds by the increasing senior population in the state.

"Our fastest growing age group is seniors, and that's followed by young families," she said. "And there are a lot of expenses involved when the seniors need care eventually."