Sandoval’s school voucher bill won’t get a hearing

By Anjeanette Damon

Friday, April 15, 2011 | 9:34 a.m.

One of the centerpieces of Gov. Brian Sandoval’s education reform agenda will not get a hearing before today’s deadline for legislative committees to pass individual policy bills.

Sandoval, who campaigned somewhat halfheartedly on creating school vouchers, had requested a bill to begin amending the constitution to allow for state funds to be used at religious schools—a key to creating a viable voucher program in Nevada.

Despite the amendment process taking five years, Sandoval said he didn’t want to create a voucher program statutorily that would face significant legal hurdles or apply only to non-sectarian private schools.

But Democrats in the Assembly, who oppose vouchers, said they aren’t going to hear Sandoval’s voucher bill, Assembly Joint Resolution 8.

“Given the severity of the proposed education cuts and volume of work we have before us, AJR8 is not going to be considered,” said Assemblyman David Bobzien, chairman of the education committee.

A similar bill, sponsored by Sen. Michael Roberson, R-Las Vegas, was heard in the Senate, but isn’t expected to make it out of committee.

Democrats aren’t totally disregarding Sandoval’s education bills.

A lengthy hearing on Sandoval’s teacher tenure bill, Assembly Bill 555, will be held Saturday. Sandoval’s legislation would effectively make teachers at-will employees with no guarantee their contract would be renewed at the end of the school year.

Several of his other bills have been declared exempt from today’s deadline. They include his school choice bill that would create a letter-grading system for schools and allow children to attend schools they aren’t zoned for, a bill creating performance pay incentives for teachers and changes to the way special education programs are funded.

Sandoval’s senior adviser Dale Erquiaga said he isn’t too worried about not getting a hearing on the vouchers bill.

“The governor is here for a long time,” he said. “We’ll get another bite at the apple.”