One education question wins; the other is defeated

Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2004 | 10:55 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A proposed constitutional amendment to make education a priority was approved by the voters Tuesday but they didn't want to put their money into the venture.

Question 1, the initiative petition sponsored by Republican Rep. Jim Gibbons to require the Legislature to pass the public school budget before other appropriations, won in the election with 444,317 to 340,141 votes, or 57 percent to 43 percent, despite being defeated in 16 of the 17 counties.

Only Clark County voters supported the measure.

Question 2, the initiative pushed by the schoolteachers union to raise the financial support for public schools to the national average by 2012, narrowly lost with 401,732 votes, or 51 percent, against it, compared with 378,791, or 49 percent of votes, in favor. Clark County was the only one to support the measure, with the other 16 counties opposed.

The defeat of Question 2 on the ballot was a setback for the Nevada State Education Association, which argued the state was 45th in the nation in funding the public schools, or $1,655 per pupil below the national average. The average per pupil expenditure is $6,079, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

The association two years ago had tried to get an issue on the ballot to increase taxes for the support of education but it was blocked by the court.

"The real losers are the children of Nevada," Ken Lange, executive director of the teachers association, said. The initiative "became an issue of taxation," he said, and people didn't understand that it would not be effective until 2012.

The teachers will "keep coming back" to increase funding for education, Lange said. If Nevada doesn't do anything by 2012, the state will be $3,000 behind the national average, he said.

"We're looking at our options now," he said.

Sen. Mike Schneider, D-Las Vegas, introduced a bill in 2003 to raise the state's support to the national average. That was estimated to cost $1.1 billion over the biennium. The bill never made it out of committee.

Question 1, which must be passed again in 2006 before it becomes part of the Constitution, was the result of an impasse in the 2003 Legislature over increasing taxes. Other parts of the state's budget were approved but the public school support bill, which was last funding bill to be passed, was held until the tax bill was approved so there would be enough money to finance the program.

Gibbons said the approval of Question 1 reflects the anger of parents who "saw the Legislature hold education hostage to a tax bill."

Gibbons said he would not have voted for the $833.5 million tax bill. He said there were "other ways to work with the budget" in the Legislature.

Education "has to have the highest priority," said Gibbons, who won a fifth term Tuesday. "They (the Legislature) violated the Constitution by not funding it."

When the passage of the education funding bill was delayed, Gibbons said, some schools were unable to hire teachers, a few were unable to open on time, and the stalemate hurt the schools in purchasing of books for the new semester.

He said the Legislature should have passed the school aid bill first and then taken care the other agencies that have a lower priority.