Lawmaker pushes for school vouchers

Tuesday, July 9, 2002 | 11:01 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that public money could be used for private school tuition, a state legislator has asked for a bill to be drafted to allow use of school vouchers in Nevada.

Sen. Maurice Washington, R-Sparks, said Monday the Supreme Court decision "will give us more momentum. It puts 'mo' on our side."

His bill, Washington said, is modeled after the program in Cleveland, which the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, held last month did not violate the separation between church and state.

Washington and 10 Republican co-sponsors submitted a school voucher bill in 2001, but it never made it out of the Senate Human Resources and Facilities Committee.

"I'm sure we will do better this time," Washington said.

But the Nevada State Education Association, the teachers union, has vowed to fight the bill. Public schools are already under-funded, association President Terry Hickman said, and this plan would divert more taxpayer money to unregulated private schools.

The bill comes at a time when the association and others are trying to raise the state's support of public schools to the national level, Hickman said. A report from the U.S. Census Bureau earlier this year said Nevada spent an average $5,736 per pupil, about 17 percent below the national average for the 1999-2000 school year.

Hickman said Nevadans support the present educational system, and he doesn't think the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court will sway them to back a voucher system.

"The taxpayers feel they should put more money into the public schools," Hickman said.

The bill in the 2001 Legislature allowed private schools to apply to the state Department of Education for approval to receive voucher payments for children of low-income families.

Students whose family income was below the federal poverty level were eligible under that bill, as were students attending a public school that was designated as "needing improvement" for at least three years.

Schools receive the "need improvement" designation if 40 percent of their students score below the 26th percentile in all four areas of the annual TerraNova standardized test -- reading, writing, math and science.

Currently, there are about four schools in the Clark County School District carrying that designation, said Clark County Superintendent Carlos Garcia.

Because of the district's rapid growth, a voucher program would not have as negative an effect as it would in other districts, Garcia said. Last year alone, 16 schools were opened in Clark County, a capacity private schools could not handle, he said.

"There isn't a parochial or private system around that could handle such capacity," Garcia said.

Garcia estimates that families would receive about $3,800 per year for students in underacheiving schools, not enough to cover tuition in most private schools.

The schools receiving vouchers would have been prohibited in the 2001 bill from charging the family any tuition above the state grant. In addition, schools accepting vouchers had to be licensed by the state and had to have a policy that they would not discriminate on the basis of race.

However, such a program could still have negative effects for many students, causing a "separate but equal" policy for many students, Garcia said. In order for such a program to be fair, he said, it would have to conform to the same standards as public schools.

"If we can compete on a level playing field, we welcome the competition," Garcia said.

Garcia would not say whether the district would lobby against vouchers, saying that it is "too early to say."