LOOKING IN ON: EDUCATION

By Emily Richmond

Wednesday, April 25, 2007 | 7:07 a.m.

The cost of full-day kindergarten weighed on the joint Ways & Means Committee on Tuesday, with Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio blaming it for jacking up the cost of teacher signing bonuses and draining millions from the pot set aside for school improvement grants.

Before the committee approved two more years of signing bonuses for new teachers, totalling $15 million, Raggio noted that full-day kindergarten classes cost the state nearly $1 million extra last year in additional teachers.

"We continue to overlook what the cost of full-day kindergarten is, or has been," said Raggio, R-Reno.

Lawmakers also debated the future of a school improvement grant program created during the 2005 session. Then-Gov. Kenny Guinn set aside $100 million, with $22 million earmarked for full-day kindergarten in at-risk schools.

The current budget calls for $69.9 million in grants. Several lawmakers have called for an increase in funding - and accountability.

"This is another area of the budget that I think has been shortchanged," Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley told the committee. "We need to scour the budget for funding for these innovative programs."

Raggio disagreed, saying there would be more money if the state didn't pursue full-day kindergarten.

Also weighing in on the funding discussions: The state probably will have to chip in an extra $110 million for schools because of shortfalls in sales and property tax revenue .

"We're going to have some very serious (school funding) problems," Raggio said. "I would hate to see us whittle away any more. We need to consider some limitations, some reevaluations, of the way (school improvement grants) can be utilized."

In fact, paying for full-day kindergarten at schools where more than half the children qualify for free or reduced-price meals, which the 2005 Legislature required, should be a priority of the state, and handled separately from the grant money, said Sen. Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas.

"We have an obligation to do that first," Titus said of the kindergarten program. "Then we discuss how much money we have left " for improvement grants.

Radio commercials will begin airing this week urging Nevadans to call their state lawmakers on behalf of K-12 education.

The Nevada State Education Association, the union affiliate for teachers and school support employees, is spending $65,000 on the spots.

The purpose of the ad campaign, said association President Terry Hickman, is to rally public support for school funding before May 1, when the Legislature will learn how much money is expected to be available to fund budgets for the next biennium.

The commercials play up Nevada's last-place finish in a recent Congressional Quarterly report on state support for education funding and the high number of substitute teachers filling long-term vacancies.

The spots provide a toll-free number for listeners to call their representatives.

"It's very important that lawmakers hear from our communities that they have got to make a difference in public education," Hickman said. "Even when finances may be difficult, this has to remain a top priority."

For the first time in about five years, a regular meeting of the Clark County School Board has been cancel ed for lack of a quorum.

Terri Janison will be in Carson City tomorrow for the Nevada PTA convention, while Ruth Johnson and Mary Beth Scow are out of town for family reasons. Larry Mason, who is battling leukemia, has managed to attend a number of meetings by telephone. But regulations allow only up to two board members to call in.

"It's very unusual for us to have to cancel," said board member Sheila Moulton, who was first elected in 1998. "We got caught in a situation and unfortunately there was no way to get everybody there."