Garcia sounds alarm on funds

Erin Neff

Thursday, March 15, 2001 | 11:34 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Clark County School Superintendent Carlos Garcia told lawmakers Wednesday there is no more time to wait for answers on education funding.

In proposing some $473 million in increased funding for public education over the next two years, Garcia repeated his recent mantra: "I hate to sound like Chicken Little, but the sky is falling.

"What our school district will look like in two years is something nobody in this room will be happy with," Garcia told the Senate Human Resources and Facilities Committee.

Garcia presented the Nevada Educational Stability Plan to both that Senate committee and the Assembly Education Committee in an attempt to garner more money for Nevada students.

This fall, Garcia said, the Clark County School District will be lacking about 500 teachers. Without increasing teacher salaries and giving them more time for professional development he said it will be even harder to recruit and retain teachers.

"Maybe it's time to throw some money at education," said Sen. Mike Schneider, D-Las Vegas, who plans to introduce a bill Friday mandating Nevada fund education at the national per-pupil average.

Garcia's plan calls for a 3 percent cost-of-living adjustment for each of the next two years at a cost of $142.2 million. The current starting salary for teachers in Clark County is $26,874. The raise will bring the salary for beginning teachers to $31,772.

"We have to be competitive," Garcia told the Education Committee.

He also proposes adding $604 to the current $5,295 per pupil expenditure to bring Nevada closer to the national average -- $6,189. The increases would take Nevada from 37th to 27th in regard to per-pupil spending.

"We are the Silver State," Garcia said.

The proposal also includes adding 19 minutes to the school day, at a cost of $143.8 million over the next two years. It would also add five days to the school year for staff development at $75.6 million over two years.

Another $68 million is proposed for textbooks, equipment and technology.

The bulk of the spending proposal would go for teacher and literacy incentives, recruitment initiatives, student enrichment programs and teacher retention programs at schools with higher needs.

Assemblywoman Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas, is worried that even the proposed teacher recruitment programs could leave Nevada behind other states with teaching needs.

"All states are going to be short," she said. "We can offer the pie in the sky, but the reality is that every state is going to be short."