Education initiative first to be submitted

Kirsten Searer

Friday, June 4, 2004 | 11:19 a.m.

The Education First initiative could be the first proposed amendment to the state constitution to be placed on this November's ballot.

Advocates of the initiative, which would force legislators to pass a K-12 education budget before anything else, said they turned in more than 90,000 signatures Thursday, nearly two weeks before the deadline.

The initiative is the first to be turned in, and now election officials must verify that the petition has been signed by more than 51,000 registered voters.

To qualify, the initiative needs to get the signatures of 10 percent of registered voters in at least 13 of the state's 17 counties.

If the petition reaches the ballot it would have to earn a majority of votes in two statewide general elections -- this year and again in 2006 -- to become law.

On Thursday, backers of the Education First initiative said their idea is so popular that it was easy to get the necessary signatures. Polls show that about 70 percent of Nevadans support the initiative, said political consultant Jim Denton.

"Education is important to people," Denton said. "They really want the education system improved in this state."

When they were out on the streets collecting signatures, many people told the Education First petitioners that they felt the education budget was "held up" because of politics last year, said Scott Craigie, co-chairman of the drive and a chief of staff to former Democratic Gov. Bob Miller.

Pushed by Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., and his wife, Assemblywoman Dawn Gibbons, R-Reno, Education First has received endorsements from a bipartisan slate including Republican Gov. Kenny Guinn and Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

The issue arose in 2003 during the last legislative session, when lawmakers held up the education budget while they debated a substantial tax increase.

One Northern Nevada district started its school year late and the Clark County School District was forced to freeze hiring of more than 1,000 teachers and examine the possibility of reassigning hundreds of specialized teachers.

Republican lawmakers said the district's response went too far and was an attempt to force the Legislature to pass a more favorable education budget.

The Education First initiative aims to pull the education budget from that kind of political maneuvering, Denton said.

He said the initiative appeals to parents worried about education funds and people frustrated about the last legislative session.

Still, some legislators, including Sen. Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, have said Nevadans don't need to amend the constitution to make education spending a priority.

Paul Brown, the Southern Nevada Director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, pointed out that the initiative wouldn't actually increase spending for education.

"It's another nice sounding initiative that doesn't address the problem," he said.

People naturally tend to take up the easiest issues when they are negotiating, he said. So it's counterintuitive to negotiate the education budget first, he said.

"Whether you're in a labor contract or you're negotiating with your kids, you knock out the easy things first," he said. "It's human nature."

Claudia Briggs, a spokeswoman for the Nevada State Education Association, said the Education First initiative brings needed light to education funding but "doesn't really get the job done."

"We need to be at least at the national average so kids can get the quality education they deserve," she said.

The state teachers union is pushing its own initiative that would require per-pupil spending in Nevada to be funded at the national average or higher. Briggs said the association plans to turn in its signatures "within the next week or so."

"We're in the process of tying up loose ends," she said.

There are still plenty of petitioners trolling Nevada's streets and parking lots, looking for signatures before the June 15 deadline. As many as nine initiatives are in circulation now.