Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Campaign to fund schools intensifies

TV Coverage

Ken Lange, executive director of the Nevada State Education Association, and Lucille Lusk, a former Clark County School District trustee and member of Nevada Concerned Citizens, discuss education today on "Face to Face With Jon Ralston." The show airs on Las Vegas ONE, Cox cable channels 1 and 39 at 4:30 p.m., 5:30 p.m., 8 p.m., 11:30 p.m. today and 3 a.m. Saturday. It will be run again at 1 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Sunday. A "Face to Face" interview with Clark County School Superintendent Carlos Garcia will air at 8 p.m. Saturday and 5:30p.m. Sunday.

The furor over the legislative deadlock continued to build this week, with parents, school district officials and the state teachers union all mounting campaigns to keep the pressure on lawmakers to properly fund education.

A Thursday night rally at Katz Elementary School in Las Vegas brought out more than 200 people who demanded lawmakers pass taxes to fund schools. This morning the Nevada State Education Association withdrew its endorsement of tax opponent Assemblyman Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, and announced an ad campaign to drum up support for school funding.

The Legislature is due back in Carson City on Wednesday to take up the school budget and a package of tax increases to cover the state's deficit. The special session was called after lawmakers deadlocked during both the regular session and a special session. A handful of Republicans in the Assembly have been targeted because of their no votes.

The Nevada State Education Association this morning retracted its endorsement of Beers, an outspoken lawmaker who has argued for cutting the state budget rather than raising taxes. It's the first time in the union's history that it has taken back its election support.

"Assemblyman Bob Beers has misled us with his responses in the questionnaire required to be completed before being considered for an endorsement," union President Terry Hickman said. "We believe Mr. Beers has lost sight of the consequences his opposition to an $869 million tax package will deliver."

"Our members are furious with Mr. Beers," he said.

The NSEA also targeted nine other legislators opposed to the tax hike. The association held a press conference to unveil the media campaign. The nine targeted Assembly Republicans were: Walter Andonov, Henderson; David Brown, Henderson; Chad Christensen, Las Vegas; Pete Goicoechea, Eureka; Tom Grady, Carson City; Dr. Garn Mabey, Las Vegas; John Marvel, Battle Mountain; Rod Sherer, Pahrump; and Valerie Weber, Las Vegas.

Among those who were targeted by the union, Marvel and Andonov had union endorsements last fall. Those endorsements were not withdrawn, but the two legislators were put on notice, Hickman said.

Andonov and Beers both ran successfully against teachers. Beers beat Howard Wade Bycroft, a Green Valley High School history teacher, and Andonov bested Lisa Cano, a Clark County School District Spanish teacher.

On the questionnaire Beers pledged he would work to raise the per-pupil expenditures to the national average and support changes to the existing tax structure to better fund education.

Hickman, holding a copy of Beers' signed questionnaire, said, "He has not kept his commitment to our teachers, to our kids and to our support professionals. You can't say you support education and then vote against the taxes that pay for our schools."

Beers said it was "kind of weird but he was not surprised" that the teachers union is withdrawing its support of him. He said he did not think it would hurt him in his bid for re-election in 2004. In fact, he said he was concerned when the union endorsed him in the last election.

He said the Republican Assemblymen want a chance to vote on the $1.6 billion school funding budget for the next two years. He noted during the special session that all of the Republicans on the special tax committee in the Assembly voted to approve the bill but the Democrats did not.

Democrats want the school aid bill tied to a tax bill. Republicans want to vote on them separately. By voting on them together, the bills have failed because a tax increase needs a two-thirds majority to pass.

Beers said the Legislature has not taken care of education over the past 10 years because it was expanding government in welfare and regulatory programs. "That stuff draws resources away from the primary mission of K-12," he said.

Republicans in the Assembly stand ready to vote on the school aid bill that will produce an extra $337 million for education. But he said the Democrats are blocking its passage.

He said he doesn't understand the teachers' interest in promoting an extra $950 million in other government spending, outside of education. He said the proposal to raise $869 million in taxes will mean that teachers will lose 1 percent of their income.

He said he doesn't understand "how this will help teachers."

Assembly Minority Leader Lynn Hettrick, R-Gardnerville, said the pressure from education circles being put on Republican Assemblymen in Las Vegas is "making them angry." He said "It's making them stronger" in their resolve to cut the budget before approving any tax increases.

At the rally at Katz Elementary, hundreds of people turned out to say lawmakers should stop pointing fingers and that they should finish the job they were elected to do.

"Gaming needs to do more," a crowd of more than 200 chanted during the rally that attracted some legislators who were confronted by angry parents after the demonstration.

Parents vowed to keep bombarding lawmakers with e-mails and telephone calls. Even students appeared impatient with the process.

"This is about funding education so teachers can be hired in a timely fashion so we can have the cream of the crop instead of the dregs," parent Erica Mayer said. "You can't hold the children hostage while grown men fight. Don't hold our budget hostage."

First-grade teacher and parent Jennifer Hendricks said she was concerned that her son Conner, 10, would miss classes that teach real-world skills.

"The idea of shutting down the computer lab is unbelievable," Hendricks said of the budget effects rippling down to Betsy Ross Elementary School.

"It's ridiculous," Desiree Danford, 10, said. "They can't fund our school."

"It's the government's fault," Jaime Urban, 12, said. "We don't know what's going to happen in the fall."

Chrissie Negrin was going to teach in the district's Gifted and Talented Education program in the fall. Since the school district told 411 literacy and technology specialists and GATE teachers they would be returning to regular classrooms in August, she has been reassigned to Roy Martin Middle School to teach math.

"It's a subject I don't like very much," she said.

For Natalie Vienup, 7, who had been accepted as one of 57 students into the GATE program, the loss of Negrin was disheartening. "I don't know what I'm going to do," she said.

"Mom's trying to think on the bright side," mother Laura Vienup said. "First she was accepted, and then to have the rug pulled out from under you ... the legislators are playing games with our kids."

A handful of lawmakers stood with the crowd Thursday night. Beers is one of five holdouts who doesn't favor the current tax proposal.

As more than 50 parents and four Clark County School District police officers surrounded him, Beers threw his hands in the air. "Let's forget about reopening the budget," he said. "Let's vote on the K-12 budget."

Asked who would break the deadlock when the special legislative session opens next week, Assemblyman David Goldwater, D-Las Vegas, said, "The first one that comes to their senses."

Assemblywoman Peggy Pierce, D-Las Vegas, took a shot at Republicans.

The Bush administration and Congress have cut another $81 million from Nevada's budget after wiping out estate taxes, Pierce said.

Amanda Vertner, 16, a senior at Foothills High School, spent seven days at the Legislature and said she didn't see much.

"They went into committee meetings all the time," Vertner said. "One good thing they did, they lowered proficiency scores."

Lawmakers say public input is an important part of their decision-making process at times like this.

"A big part of our jobs is listening to people's questions and concerns," said Assemblywoman Ellen Koivisto, D-Las Vegas. "I think its wonderful that a large section of the community is standing up and saying that education matters. That's what the Legislature needs to hear."

It's also a lawmaker's job to correct misconceptions, Koivisto said.

"It's amazing the number of people who will tell me 'The gaming industry needs to pay more,' " Koivisto said. "They're usually stunned when I tell them that gaming is already paying 38 percent and that the banking industry has higher profits than gaming and paying zip."

Hettrick, the Assembly Republicans' leader, said he's answering about 350 e-mails a day from people, with about 95 percent of the messages urging him not to approve a budget that includes tax increases.

"They're telling me to stick to my guns," Hettrick said. "And that's exactly what I intend to do."

Hettrick said other messages are also reinforcing his resolve, although perhaps not in the direction the senders intended.

"There's a great deal of misinformation out there," Hettrick said. "It's clear to me from reading a lot of these letters that people aren't being told the truth."

The truth, Hettrick said, is that Distributive School Account funding level has been agreed upon and that education officials know exactly how much money they'll receive.

"It's a question of when, not how much," Hettrick said. "The scare tactics of not hiring teachers, of telling people schools might close, the districts are doing all of that themselves."

School district officials vigorously disagree, saying the DSA amount isn't final until it passes a full legislative vote and is accepted by the governor.

"They're asking us to write checks when we don't know if we're going to have enough money in the bank to cover those checks," Clark County Schools Superintendent Carlos Garcia said Thursday. "That's illegal and irresponsible and we're not going to do it."

Hettrick said the schools are not in jeopardy of closing or being damaged. He said State Controller Kathy Augustine will send a $60 million check to the school districts on June 30th.

This is the regular quarterly payment for this fiscal year, Hettrick said. In addition the schools will be able to use the local revenues they collect from the property tax and the sales tax. That should keep them operating at least until Aug. 1, he said.

Gov. Kenny Guinn's spokesman, Greg Bortolin, said the delay in passing the school aid bill "puts the schools in a position that they can't plan, can't hire teachers and can't do the things they need to do."

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