Editorial: Lack of empowerment

Friday, June 15, 2007 | 7:18 a.m.

W hen the Nevada Legislature's 2007 session ended, the Clark County School District was left with a mandate to increase its number of empowerment schools - but without enough funding to do so.

According to reporting by the Las Vegas Sun on Wednesday, the Legislature failed to approve almost $1.7 million in funding for empowerment schools that Clark County School District officials had hoped to receive for this coming academic year. At one time in the legislative session the money had been set aside, but somehow - and it's not clear why - the funding was stripped from the final legislation.

The district started a pilot empowerment-school program at four elementary school campuses last year and had planned to increase the number to eight in August. But Clark County schools won't start to receive funding until the 2008-09 academic year, the year in which the School District is supposed to increase its number of empowerment schools to 16.

At empowerment schools, principals and teachers have leeway to tailor teaching methods, staffing and schedules to accommodate their schools' specific needs. They receive extra funding, but also must meet stricter accountability standards.

As the Sun reported Wednesday, pupils at three of the four empowerment schools already in operation showed, for the most part, dramatic improvements in standardized test scores. At Culley Elementary School, for example, 54 percent of third graders met or exceeded math proficiency as compared with 21 percent the previous year. And the reading scores of Antonello Elementary School's third graders increased to 73 percent, up from 56 percent.

Despite these documented successes in a program that already was in existence, Gov. Jim Gibbons announced his own empowerment schools program when he took office this year. Gibbons' preposterous proposal for empowerment included stripping funding from other education programs to help pay for it.

In light of such poor leadership from Gibbons, starting as soon as he was sworn into office, it's not surprising that he and his aides weren't taking charge on this issue in the Legislature's waning days to ensure enough funding to help the empowerment schools program. And, as usual, Nevada's schoolchildren are the ones who ultimately will suffer.