Educators support plans

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2003 | 9:52 a.m.

Clark County educators and parents cheered the proposals Gov. Kenny Guinn unveiled Monday to shore up Nevada's public schools with better teacher pay, more money for supplies and an all-day kindergarten program for at-risk students.

"This isn't just a step in the right direction, it's a leap," said Clark County School Superintendent Carlos Garcia. "The governor said he would stand up for education, and that's exactly what he's done. Now we just have to hope the lawmakers get in line and support us."

Of the 15 improvements outlined in the state school superintendents' $879 million iNVest plan, Guinn backed versions of five of the proposals: $37.8 million for textbooks and classroom supplies; $24 million for an all-day kindergarten program for at-risk schools; $33 million to boost teacher pay in in disciplines where shortages are most severe, including mathematics and special education; giving school districts more leeway in determining class sizes; and continuing a $2,000 signing bonus for new teachers established during the 2001 legislative session.

The budget also preserves a 2 percent pay increase scheduled for the 2004 fiscal year.

While much of Guinn's plan won praise, there are still some essential needs that were overlooked, said Ken Lange, executive director of the Nevada State Education Association, representing most of the state's teachers.

Signing bonuses are helpful in the short-term but do not address the long-term need to raise teacher salaries, Lange said Monday following Guinn's address.

And even if Guinn's budget is passed, Nevada's per-pupil expenditure will still be thousands below the national average with no raise in sight.

"That's a direct reflection of the downturn in the economy and the effects of Sept. 11," Lange said. "Nevada has also deliberately and consciously cultivated a tax base that hurts Nevada's children."

Lange said his union wants a secure tax base that works. That's a viewpoint shared by the supporters of the iNVest plan, said Joyce Haldeman, executive director of community and government relations for the Clark County School District.

"The first principle of iNVest is the need for stable funding for education," Haldeman said. "From the governor's speech, it seems like we're starting to move toward that goal."

The all-day kindergarten will help "create a generation of young Nevadans with stronger, sharper and more sophisticated skills," Guinn said.

Guinn proposed eventually expanding the full-day kindergarten program to include all of the state's children, not just those attending at-risk schools. Campuses with the highest percentage of students qualifying for free and reduced meals are designated at-risk for the purposes of federal funding.

Both the iNVest plan and a separate proposal devised by the Nevada Board of Education backed full-day kindergarten programs. It's also a plan that's been touted by Nevada Democrats for at least a decade, said Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas.

Following Guinn's address, in an interview on "Face to Face with Jon Ralston" on Las Vegas ONE, a cable channel owned by Cox Cable, KLAS Channel 8 and the Greenspun family, publishers of the Sun, Buckley said she supported the governor's blueprint for bolstering public education.

It's not unreasonable to expect retailers -- particularly "big box stores" like Wal-Mart and Costco -- to contribute more to the state's tax base, Buckley said.

"They pay in every other state, they can help with our educational needs too," Buckley said.

The gap between poor students entering kindergarten and their wealthier classmates is sizable, according to a study by the National Center for Education Statistics. Children from low-income families often arrive at kindergarten unable to recite the alphabet or count to 20, a gap that the traditional half-day kindergarten schedule often cannot overcome, the study found.

"We're sending our children on to first grade and they aren't ready to read, they aren't ready to write," said Loretta Tucker, past president of the Harris Elementary School PTA in the eastern region of the Clark County School District. "Our kindergarten teachers get the kids for two and half hours. Once they get the children settled down and calm, there's maybe 90 minutes left to teach. That's not nearly enough time."