Education Week Wraps Up

Education Week Wraps Up

It was an exciting, but exhausting week for education advocates. We had hearings go well in to the evening on Monday and Wednesday in joint education hearings. Policy issues were heard and elicited significant public response around expansion of full-day kindergarten, expanding pre-K for our most at-risk students, limiting the practice of social promotion, and tightening and better reporting around class size reduction. Additionally, the first hearing on the district’s main budget, the Distributed School Account (DSA), was heard in a joint meeting of Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means.

There was a healthy amount of debate about the positive impacts and potential unintended consequences of all these issues, but one thing was clear – everyone wants to improve student achievement. That is a good sign.

Next week we will tackle additional education policy issues. There will be a presentation about the Teachers and Leaders Council as well as the Regional Professional Development Program (RPDP). WCSD is participating in all these discussions and representing the values of our board platform. There will also be a presentation about the increasing emphasis of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) programs.

There will also be a widely publicized hearing about what’s been deemed The Education Initiative (TEI) – an initiative petition largely facilitated by the Nevada State Teachers Association (NSEA). This initiative petition calls for a 2% margins tax on businesses generating over $1 million in revenue, and the money generated from this tax is intended to be added to the education budget in our state.

I’m already looking forward to updating you next week on the highlights of these discussions. Thanks for following this discussion. While Carson City may seem eons away, many of these decisions will ultimately impact the school and classroom level. Get engaged and take this biennial opportunity to have your voice heard by your legislators. Don’t know who they are? Find out here!