Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Gibbons: Education proposal wouldn’t mean cuts for schools

Sun Coverage

Gov. Jim Gibbons changed his message on his education reform proposals, saying this morning that changes to the K-12 system were about improving education and wouldn't necessarily mean schools would lose money from the state.

Gibbons said his proposal is about giving control to local schools and parents, rather than having decisions on how money is spent made in Carson City.

In an apparent contradiction from he and his staff's statements last week, he said repeatedly that schools that want money will get it.

"If a school wants class-size reduction, then there's a fund to pay for it," Gibbons said after a Board of Examiner's meeting.

Reporters repeatedly asked if all of the money would be there if schools wanted it. "That's what we're proposing," Gibbons said.

"All of the money into a special fund?" asked a reporter.

"All of the money," Gibbons said.

It's a reversal from statements last week that his proposal was driven, in part, by the state's budget shortfall, where tax revenue has been coming in below expectations.

Gibbons said last week that education had been mostly exempted from previous rounds of cuts. Education, he said, represents 54 percent of the state budget and the administration has little choice but to put it under the microscope this year.

"We can no longer go back to that well of 46 percent of the budget to make up 100 percent of the reductions," he told reporters in Las Vegas. Gibbons last week said that his education reform proposals would save $30 million to $100 million a year, and critics of the plan said it would lead to teacher layoffs.

Gibbons and his staff said today they can't estimate how much money it would save, and that it would wait until the Economic Forum met Jan. 22 to make the recommendation.

According to a written copy of Gibbons' proposal, he proposed eliminating the $145 million fund to reduce class sizes in first, second and third grade; and a $25.5 million fund to pay for all-day kindergarten in some school districts. Some of that money would be returned in the school district's overall funding, but some money would revert to the general fund.

Gibbons' staff tried to clarify his remarks later. Dan Burns, Gibbons' spokesman, said there would inevitably be some savings to the state in the proposal because there would be no granting of waivers that schools apply for.

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