Nevada flunks with education funding

Friday, Jan. 18, 2002 | 10:47 a.m.

The state Legislature will have to attend summer school if it is to earn a passing grade in how it funds education.

The Children's Advocacy Alliance today released its Children's Legislative Report Card and gave passing grades for child health and welfare, juvenile justice and the protection of children, but a failing mark for education.

"We are now rated 44th in per-student funding," Children's Advocacy Alliance President Donna Husted said prior to announcing the findings at the Las Vegas Country Club this morning. "This is just not acceptable."

Bobbie Gang of the Nevada Women's Lobby said, "We are $1,000 per pupil behind the national average in funding. A lot of advocates will be addressing this at the next Legislature."

A report card released last year by Children's Advocacy Alliance, a nonprofit group that works with Metro Police and local agencies that help abused and neglected children, gave Nevada a "D" in education for being ranked 37th in per-pupil expenditures.

Assemblyman Wendell Williams, D-Las Vegas, chairman of the Assembly Education Committee, said he supports raising the education allocation, but he said lawmakers want a better accounting of how dollars are being spent by schools.

"It would be easier for me to convince my colleagues if the Clark County School District were to undertake an (outside) audit," Williams said. "All of their audits have been in-house, and some (lawmakers) are not comfortable with that. Accountability is one of the roadblocks to this issue."

Assemblywoman Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said legislators should spend the next year examining the issue and return in 2003 with funding solutions.

This year's report card reads, in part, "The inability to create a stable funding base for education continues to frustrate efforts to improve the quality of education for Nevada children ... The state's abysmal funding of education must be looked at squarely in the face and all potential sources of funding must be considered."

The Clark County School District praised the advocacy group's tough stand.

"They are absolutely correct -- funding per pupil is dismal," said Augie Orci, deputy superintendent of instruction for the School District. "We know what we have to do to educate children, but we have to have the funds to do it. The ball is in the legislators' and governor's court."

Superintendent Carlos Garcia attended today's meeting and said afterward, "The legislators ought to be thankful the group didn't give a letter grade or it likely would have been a 'D-minus' or an 'F."'

"We have dropped seven places in less than a year in per-pupil funding. We feel vindicated that this group is another source that is saying what we have been saying all along."

The report card praised lawmakers for passing Assembly Bill 1 to integrate state and local child welfare services and Assembly Bill 15 to provide financial support of grandparents who become legal guardians of their children's children. The Legislature also was lauded for increasing maximum child support payments.