Why more money will not fix Nevada’s public education

UNLV Scarlet & Gray Free Press. Published Nov. 10, 2019.

While Nevada may be home to world-renowned casinos, extravagant buffets and luxurious nightclubs, it is also home to one of the most underperforming education systems in the nation. Year after year, Nevada ranks among the worst for education, and at this point, locals barely bat an eye at the news.

Many critics blame the national rank on the lack of money spent on education in comparison to other states. Currently, Nevada spends around $9,000 per pupil whereas the national average reaches around $13,000.

With that in mind, it seems only logical that by raising per pupil spending, Nevada can bridge the gap in education performance. However, whether or not that assumption actually reigns true is questionable.

In 2015, Nevada passed the largest tax hike in state history, raising the education budget to $4 billion, and since then, the most notable improvement has been in fourth-grade reading scores. Other than that, student performance appears relatively the same.

Of course, any improvement in scores is an achievement to celebrate, but there is no proof directly linking the development to the budget increase. As mentioned in a recent article by the Review Journal, scores have also improved between 2009 to 2015 when the education budget remained stagnant.

Unfortunately, more money does not immediately mean better schools. Regardless of how much Nevada invests in education, larger budgets will not be the state’s saving grace because there are multiple factors keeping Nevada at the bottom.

For starters, money is not always spent properly. In the past, education funds have been invested in ways that were arguably more harmful than helpful.

Currently, the state runs under the oldest education funding formula in the country. Known as the Nevada Plan, the formula determines how much money each school district gets. However, the distribution is not as fair as it should be.

Although Southern Nevada generates the majority of the state’s revenue, most of that money is sent to rural counties where per pupil costs reach over $20,000 while CCSD students receive roughly $6,000 each.

Additionally, a large chunk of money has been wasted on corrupt employees. In CCSD specifically, former director of the Adult English Language Acquisition Services program Priscilla Rocha, who was already paid a salary of over $100,000, admitted to stealing an extra $132,000 from the district in 2015.

According to a report by the Nevada Journal, Rocha’s crimes consisted of everything from stealing district computers to using student fees to purchase a hair salon. Her thievery took place over several years, yet her supervisors failed to notice any foul play at the time.

If Rocha was able to commit such crimes over a long period of time, who is to say other employees have not done something similar?

Rocha is proof that CCSD needs a fiscal and performance audit of their employees to ensure that taxpayer money goes to the right places.

Besides the poor distribution of money, Nevada education may also be lagging due to the extra obstacles students face here as opposed to other states.

Based on data from a report by Quality Counts, Nevada ranks 50th in terms of students’ Chance-for-Success because of factors like lower than average family income, parent education and linguistic integration.

Not only does Nevada have the second most amount of English language learners in the nation, but the state also has 53 percent of students who qualify for free or reduced-cost lunch. Along with the regular stressors of schools, these students also face financial and language barriers that make learning difficult.

While it is nice to think that throwing more money at Nevada’s education will fix the problem altogether, unfortunately the issues run deeper than that. From systemic flaws to student struggles, the reasons for Nevada’s shortfalls vary too widely to place blame in one area.

Although Nevada’s issues may be extensive, the only way to truly change state education for the better is by addressing the aforementioned issues. 

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