Cuts seen as a ceiling

By Emily Richmond

Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2008 | 2 a.m.

The Clark County School District invests heavily in career and technical education because, officials say, it effectively prepares students for both college and the job market.

But because of looming cuts to higher education, some of the district’s students, especially those pursuing careers in health care, might be getting a springboard into an empty pool — or at least one that’s rapidly draining.

More than 2,000 high school students are this year preparing for careers as nurses, paramedics, pharmacists and other medical professionals. Although that would seem to bode well for a state that lacks adequate numbers of health care professionals, opportunities are dwindling for these students to complete in college the training they began in high school.

Nevada’s higher education system, along with other state agencies, faces steep budget cuts.

Chancellor Jim Rogers has said cuts at the levels proposed by Gov. Jim Gibbons would leave him no choice but to reduce enrollment in Nevada’s seven nursing programs. Such a move would cause long-term harm to the state’s health care system, Rogers said in a Sept. 30 memo to the Board of Regents.

Even before the proposed cuts came along, the state was falling behind in training the nurses it needs.

A 2005 study determined Nevada should add 716 registered nurses a year through 2010 to keep pace with demand. The state’s colleges and universities produce fewer than 300 RN graduates a year.

Assuming a best-case scenario, in which every graduate chooses to work in Nevada after graduation, the state would have an annual shortfall of more than 400 nurses.

Hundreds of qualified applicants seeking to become nurses — among them the high schoolers the district is preparing — are turned away each year because of a lack of seats in state nursing schools. The College of Southern Nevada, home to the state’s largest nursing program, with 550 students, turns away hundreds of qualified applicants a year.

If the budget cuts are carried out, CSN would have to trim its nursing enrollment by 128.

To Breana Goodall-Fleming, a junior in Rancho High School’s medical academy, dwindling college opportunities would be a betrayal. The message to her generation has been consistent and clear: Work hard and you will get into college. Go to college and you will be successful.

“Now, if they say we can’t, it’s like they tricked us,” she said.

Research has long shown the benefits of career and technical education — students who are engaged are more likely to study, attend class and graduate. It’s one reason the School District has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in career and technical academies and magnet programs at traditional high schools. The intent was to connect “children into occupational paths where we know they would find employment,” Superintendent Walt Rulffes said.

Yet given the budgetary climate, Rulffes said: “I feel like we might be sending them down the wrong path if there aren’t college opportunities for them here. Our whole premise is that this is a cooperative effort with higher education.”

The programs have also created ties to the broader community, as businesses provide internships, mentoring and financial support.

At Sunrise Hospital, Recruiting Director Ron Winkler created Camp Wannabeanurse to give the School District’s career track students the opportunity to spend a day on the job.

At a recent session, students from the district’s career academies and magnet high schools toured the emergency room and neonatal unit. They watched a medical helicopter touch down and they hurried over to pepper a flight nurse with questions.

Winkler said he was impressed by the students’ knowledge and enthusiasm.

“That’s our future,” Winkler said. “All you have to do is open that door and they’ll walk right in.”