Thursday, March 1, 2007 | 7:09 a.m.
If the state's anemic education system is to be rejuvenated, the Legislature will have to take significant action this year.
Lawmakers must avoid falling into the trap of previous sessions - pushing off tough choices to a future Legislature - and confront the reality that public schools have been woefully unsupported by the state in the last few decades. The schools haven't had the money to keep up with the state's astronomical growth, and the natural consequence is seen today in indicators such as high student-to-teacher ratios and low achievement marks.
The first step lawmakers should take is supporting all-day kindergarten. Last week every Democratic lawmaker signed on to a bill that would expand the state's all-day kindergarten pilot program to every elementary school in the state.
Republicans, however, have complained about the cost of all-day kindergarten and have lined up against the plan. Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons has pitted all-day kindergarten against his vague $60 million empowerment school program that would give school principals more authority over their budgets and their schools. Assembly Minority Leader Garn Mabey, R-Las Vegas, has suggested that instead of all-day kindergarten, the state put more money into trade and technical programs as a way to reduce dropout rates.
It is not hard to see how Nevada's educational system fell into the mess it is in with this kind of thinking. Why make a disingenuous argument pitting all-day kindergarten against empowerment schools and trade and technical programs? If these are all good programs, why not move forward with all of them?
One of the roadblocks in the past has been the Republican complaint about school accountability. They have said there has not been enough accountability or enough evidence that what the schools are doing is working.
Clark County School District administrators rolled out a plan last week to measure the district's success in simple terms, as reported by Emily Richmond in Monday's Las Vegas Sun.
"If we are going to ask the taxpayers and the Legislature to fund at a higher level, we are going to have to defend the request with a higher level of performance," Superintendent Walt Rulffes said.
Rulffes and his staff should be commended for laying out a plan that provides accountability. The plan sets some tough standards. The district will not be able to meet them until the Legislature adequately pays to educate Nevada's students.
Education should be a bipartisan issue, and lawmakers should do the right thing - find ways to improve education and do what it takes to make them happen. Otherwise, in two years, lawmakers will be in the same spot, facing an education system that will have fallen even further behind.
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