Though the 2025 legislative session ended just a few months ago, Clark County School District (CCSD) Superintendent Jhone Ebert is already gearing up for the 2027 session. 

Her goal? More funding for K-12 education.

During a recent interview with The Nevada Independent, Ebert pointed to the district’s recent teacher vacancy decrease as proof that the major K-12 education investment lawmakers made in 2023 has paid off.

“I think so many times in Nevada, we’ve had these proof points of, ‘Yes, you make this investment and the children will achieve,’” she said. 

Even with that infusion of more than $2 billion in 2023 (a 26 percent increase over the previous budget cycle), Nevada’s per-pupil funding of about $13,000 a year remains $4,000 behind the national average. The Guinn Center for Policy Priorities, a local think tank, doesn’t expect that the minor increase that lawmakers made during the 2025 legislative session will make a big difference. 

This year, state lawmakers were constrained by lower-than-expected projected tax revenues and were only able to increase the statewide base per-pupil funding by $2 for this school year, bringing it up to $9,416 per pupil, and $70 for next school year, bringing it up to $9,486 per pupil. 

School funding experts on a state-sponsored commission have recommended lawmakers reform the state’s property tax and sales tax systems to bring in more revenue, which could eventually get Nevada’s per-pupil funding — which continues to rank low even after the historic 2023 infusion — to the national average.

But efforts to carry out those recommendations have fizzled amid opposition, including from the real estate industry. During the 2025 legislative session, a resolution (AJR1) amending the state Constitution that would have reset a property’s taxable value when it's sold and made the property ineligible for tax abatements for the first year after its sale passed out of the Assembly but it died in the Democrat-controlled Senate. 

Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo has previously downplayed the commission’s recommendations as “advisement, not as a mandate,” and has pledged not to raise taxes. 

Ebert argued that lawmakers should consider taking those recommendations into consideration so they can generate more revenue, not just for education, but for the entire state. Rural Nevada superintendents echoed Ebert’s support for the recommendations in a June interview with The Indy. 

“We do know that the economy here, housing is out of control for our families, for our teachers, for our support staff,” she said. “If I was in charge, and the Legislature came down and gave us money, absolutely, I would raise the salaries for 100 percent of our employees.”

Ebert said she’s hopeful the lower teacher vacancies and new data coming out later this month showing the district's school performance improvement will sway Lombardo. 

“He wants a highly effective education system,” she said. “He's seen, now, the results.” 

In addition to lobbying state officials, Ebert said it's also important to get community support. 

“The little dollars that we receive, we use them so effectively,” she said. “I don't think the community understands that, and so it's getting the community to understand and then that will get our legislators to support.” 

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News brief

White Pine schools superintendent to retire at the end of the school year — After nearly a decade serving as the head of the White Pine County School District, Superintendent Adam Young said he’s ready to turn the reins over to a new leader. 

Young, 50, started his teaching career at the district in 1999 as a social studies teacher at White Pine Middle School. He slowly climbed the ranks and at 28, he became principal of White Pine High School and later went on to become superintendent in 2016. 

Young officially announced his upcoming retirement a few weeks ago.  

“One of my goals was to make sure that the school district is in as good of shape as it can be when I step away, so that the timing is good for that,” he said in a Sept. 3 interview, noting the expansion of the district’s career and technical education at the high school level and the opening of a science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics academy at David E. Normal Elementary School in Ely. 

Young said he doesn’t have definitive plans for retirement, but plans to take some time to rejuvenate and spend time with his granddaughters. 

For his final school year, Young is focused on securing new state funds for rural school construction that the district lobbied the Legislature for during the 2025 session so the district can take the next step in building a new K-8 school to replace two, century-old schools. 

“This impacts generations and generations of kids, and if we go for as long this time as we did last time, then we're looking at another 110 years or so until there’s another school built,” he said. 

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Reading assignments

Nevada girls lost major ground in math since the pandemic. The reasons aren’t clear-cut.

Data shows a widening gap between girls’ and boys’ math scores in Nevada. 

Nevada raised teacher pay in 2023. Two years later, vacancies have dropped.

Teacher vacancies at two of Nevada's largest school districts have dropped two years after state lawmakers boosted K-12 education funding and approved additional funding that allowed for double-digit pay bumps for teachers. 

How are students (and teachers) dealing with Nevada’s new restrictions on phones in classes?

Spoiler: Teachers say a state law limiting cellphones during school hours is working. 

Extra credit

Las Vegas Sun: Young teens in Nevada face mounting health risks as vaping surges

The Southern Nevada Health District says youth vaping is a “serious public health concern.” 

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Featured social media post

The new 2026 Nevada State Teacher of the Year is Alexandra Snabon-Jun, a music teacher at Tyrone Thompson Elementary School in Las Vegas. She’s helped the district launch music programs at several new campuses. Congrats!