Gibbons: More education funds coming to state

Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2003 | 9:24 a.m.

RENO -- Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said Monday the federal government is pumping an extra $19 million this year into Nevada under the No Child Left Behind program to help students achieve higher standards.

In all, the government is allocating $102 million, but most of that was already approved through prior years for various programs, such as special education and aid to at-risk schools, he said.

Gibbons was reminded that the repeal of the estate tax, of which he was a strong advocate, means big losses for the state in supporting education. In fiscal 2002, the estate tax yielded $25.9 million for the class size reduction program and $34.2 million in fiscal year.

"Reliance on a tax that was so basically unfair simply says that originally the thought of putting education on the back of the death tax perhaps was the wrong concept for the utilization of that tax," he said.

Gibbons said that in June he wants to allocate to Nevada's schools a greater share of revenue from the sale of the public lands in Southern Nevada. That would help make up for the loss of the estate tax, he said.

Under the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act, 5 percent of the proceeds from public land sales go to education. Gibbons said he wants to increase education's take to 35 percent.

"That's hundreds of millions of dollars more in terms of education for our state," he said.

Gibbons' statements came at a news conference after he met in private with officials from 12 of Nevada's 17 school districts about the No Child Left Behind Act. There have been complaints from school officials that the federal money is not enough to handle the work necessary to get all students up to par.

Earlier this year, Richard Ennes, business manager for the Clark County School District, told the Legislature that the price of meeting the standards of the federal act will be $71.3 million next year, $73.5 million in 2005 and $155 million in 2006.

The state Department of Education announced last week that 194 of the more than 500 schools in Nevada did not make adequate yearly progress for the first year as required by the federal act. And 27 schools failed to make progress for the second year in a row and were given the designation of "needing to improve."

Mark Lange, the Clark County district's director of Title I compliance and technical services, said the meeting with Gibbons and two federal education representatives was positive.

"They were willing to listen. They are taking our concerns back to Washington," he said.

Clark County had 18 schools that failed to make improvements for two consecutive years. The district has to offer parents of students at those schools the option of transferring their children to other schools. And at four of the schools, money will be spent for after school tutoring, weekend classes and other programs.

Lange said the district has set aside $6.8 million this year of federal Title I money to provide for these programs this year.

"As more schools are identified as being in need of improvement, the cost is going to go up," said Lange. "We could have as many schools as 49 schools next year in need of improvement."

One of the concerns, Lange said is that schools are being identified as not achieving progress based solely on limited English students, or special education pupils or by racial makeup. If those groups do not make progress, the whole school is identified as needing improvement.

He said school district officials asked Gibbons and the federal officials to look at changes to accommodate the needs of those children in the special categories without having the whole school identified as failing to make progress.

"You could have a high school of 3,000 students with 25 students that were limited English proficient," said Lange. "If that group does not do well, the whole school is identified as being in need of improvement."

Last fiscal year, there was $946.3 million allocated for Nevada's public schools.