Schools dispute rages on

Thursday, Jan. 5, 2006 | 7:16 a.m.

CARSON CITY - Republican Rep. Jim Gibbons' support for breaking up the Clark County School District touched off debate among his rivals for governor Wednesday, forcing candidates to stake out positions early in the campaign.

Republican Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt and Democratic Sen. Dina Titus, both of Las Vegas, said that dismantling the district is not the answer to its problems and would create even more bureaucracy.

Republicans Sen. Bob Beers of Las Vegas and Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson said they favor a split, although Gibson hedged by adding that he would want more study of the issue before taking a final stance.

Gibbons jumped out front on the issue during a television interview Tuesday in Reno. The Sun questioned the other candidates on Wednesday.

Beers, however, said Gibbons "got the idea from me." Beers has wanted the district dismantled for years, since Sen. Sandra Tiffany, R-Henderson, first proposed it.

"Organizations can get too big and too bound up in bureaucracy," Beers said. "The county schools are performing worse than other school districts" in the state.

Student test scores in Clark County are below those in other Nevada counties, said Beers, whose children attend class in the district.

The idea of establishing county-by-county school districts began in the 1950s and 1960s, when few people foresaw the explosive population growth in Clark County -- now the fifth largest school district in the nation.

Gibson spokesman Greg Bortolin said the Henderson mayor favors deconsolidation but "he would like to study it before going forward." Bortolin said Gibson feels there are benefits to deconsolidation, but also sees pitfalls in separating wealthy neighborhoods from poor.

"We have to be careful we don't create real exclusive districts," Bortolin said.

Titus cited precisely that point in arguing against breaking up the district. A district divided would "lose the economy of scale and exacerbate the differences between the haves and have-nots," she said. One large bureaucracy would be replaced by four or five smaller ones, all duplicating services.

The true motive for dividing the district can be found in looking at the source of its support: residents of Green Valley and other wealthier districts, she said. Wealthier districts would have more money to spend on each student -- and poorer districts would have less. "As a school goes down, so does the neighborhood," she said.

Hunt said that the district should fix its problems by addressing them directly, not by blowing it apart.

"If it's broke, let's fix it," she said. "We need a new business plan for the School District.

"Incurring more bureaucracy is not the answer. I don't want more governments and more fiefdoms."

A better approach, Hunt and Titus said, is to give more power to local schools. "More decisions should be made in the individual schools with parents and teachers involved," Titus said. She said this would include more say in curriculum and hours.

"Let the principals have power," along with the PTAs, Hunt said.

The Legislature has allocated $250,000 to study ways to break up the district. Tiffany said she will introduce a bill the next legislative session to carry out the coming plan.

She said that $100 million set aside by the Legislature to help school districts improve "should have gone right to the schools" instead of a state commission that is deciding where to put the money.

"It's a slush fund they will give to their pet projects," said Titus, referring to the nine committees of the Commission on Educational Excellence that are deciding this week where to put the money.

Cy Ryan can be reached at (775) 687-5032 or at cy@lasvegassun.com.