LAC

NSEA Legislative Action Center

Governor Jim Gibbons delivered his 2007 State of the State Address
January 22, 2007. For more details click here.

The members of the Nevada State Education Association Lobby Team are:

Lynn Warne , President
Terry Hickman, Executive Director
Mary Ella Holloway, CCEA President
Doug McCain, ESEA President
Cindy Quaglia, WESP President
Ken Buhrmann, WEA President
Jennifer Tartan, UCN President
Natha Anderson, GR Committee Chairperson
Julie Whitacre, Director of Government Relations

Contact Committee Members Throughout the Session

Assembly Committees: http://www.leg.state.nv.us/74th/committees/A_Committees/index.cfm

Senate Committees: http://www.leg.state.nv.us/74th/committees/S_Committees/index.cfm

Action Required!
Contact your legislator

The NSEA Lobby Team is asking all members to contact the members of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee to urge them to support AB 157—full-day Kindergarten. The committee discussed the possibility of expanding full-day Kindergarten for all Nevada schools. Contact your legislator today!

Nevada's Educators Say Adequacy Study Is a Map for Success

On February 14, Terry Hickman, Executive Director of the Nevada State Education Association, testified before two joint legislative committees on the results of the Adequacy Study commissioned by the legislature to ascertain the adequacy of K-12 public education in Nevada.

The Joint Committee of Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means, as well as the Joint Committee of Senate Human Resources & Education and Assembly Education, heard testimony on the findings of the study conducted by Augenblick, Palaich and Associates.

Hickman told the committees, “We all want the same thing – increased student achievement. It is time to give our students and teachers the tools to accomplish that goal.”

Mr. Hickman called attention to the specific recommendations of the study including smaller class sizes, pre-school for at-risk students, longer school year, full-day Kindergarten, alternative classroom settings for disruptive students, and increase funding for students with special needs.

“The weighted funding formula for special needs children is successfully being used by other states around the country, and is appropriate for Nevada to consider for its funding formula” Hickman added. “It just costs more to educate a child that is at-risk, an English language learner, or a special education student.”

“The results of the Adequacy Study points down a road where Nevada needs to be going. It recommends several solutions that will help close the achievement gap and give our kids the opportunity to be successful,” Hickman said.

Governor Gibbons Expected to Answer Questions About Education

The State of the State address was delivered in style and with eloquence yet it posed many significant questions that have yet to be answered. In fact, the new administration has answered very few questions regarding proposals put forth in the January 28th state of the state address and in the proposed budget. NSEA, however, has raised a few more questions regarding the governor's proposed Distributive School Account (DSA)--the school budget. NSEA encourages all members, citizens, and lawmakers to seek answers to the following questions:

The amount of money Gibbons is allocating to education is at least $53 million less than the proposed Guinn budget. Why the decrease?The Gibbons budget recommends cutting the following one shot monies:
- Performance pay for teachers ($10,000,000)
- Alternative classroom settings for disruptive students($1,000,000)
- Incentives for speech pathologists to become nationally board certified ($1,106,028)
- Programs for limited English proficient pre-K students ($175,000)
- Why cut these important and effective programs?
The Governor is proposing to do away with the funding for the 1/5 Service Credit Incentive Program, which encourages teachers to work in at-risk schools and hard to fill positions such as math, science, and special education. When there are nearly 500 eaching vacancies in Clark County alone is it really responsible to be cutting incentives to attract and retain quality teachers to our state?
Why is Governor Gibbons proposing to cut over $22 million for “innovation and remediation;” a program that allows schools to apply for funds that go directly to the classroom?
Why have the Governor and his staff insisted that the Edmonton Empowerment plan be used to implement merit pay for teachers when there is no merit pay in Edmonton? And, if this glowing example of education excellence does not use merit pay, what does that say about the concept?
The Governor, as far as we can see, has completely ignored any of the ecommendations of the recent study that investigated the adequacy of school financing in Nevada—instead, choosing to cut the amount of funding going to education. Why?
Why has the Governor chosen to ignore Nevada’s school district superintendents—three of whom are on his own transition team—and not use any of the recommendations from iNVest?

“The Governor has left the parents, teachers, and support professionals of Nevada with far more questions than he has answers,” said Terry Hickman, Executive Director of the Nevada State Education Association. “Why is the Governor offering tax breaks to banks while the needs of our kids are ignored?Why is the Governor cutting taxes instead of cutting barriers that will allow all our kids to get a quality education? Parents and educators deserve answers to these questions.”

"For the past four years Governor Gibbons has lead the charge for ‘Education First’," Hickman continued. "That shouldn't mean education is the first budget to get cut."

To contact your U.S. Representatives/Senators use the following links:

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

GPO/WEP Talking Points