We are coming close to the end of the school year and summer break is in sight. But students and teachers aren’t the only ones scrambling to get their assignments turned in — lawmakers are also working hard to get their bills to the finish line. 

In our last edition, I highlighted Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro’s (D-Las Vegas) education bill. This week, I’m diving into Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo’s education bill, which was officially introduced last week. I also covered Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager’s (D-Las Vegas) new proposal for funding charter school educator raises. 

Stay tuned to see how everything shakes out. 

I want to hear from you! Send questions, comments or suggestions on what I should be covering to [email protected].

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Notes from the Legislature

Lombardo's bill focuses on underperforming schools, districts and the students in them

Underperforming schools could be converted to charters, dysfunctional districts could face a state takeover and public funds could support private school tuition for students leaving low-performing schools under Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo’s newly introduced education bill, AB584. 

Here are some highlights. 

School accountability

Entire districts — and not just individual schools — would be subject to a rating system under the bill. 

School districts that don’t meet student achievement targets or get low ratings could be designated as low-performing. The state superintendent could also designate a school district as low-performing if they’re experiencing: 

• an “unexpected and severe economic hardship;”
• a superintendent termination or resignation that has a significant impact on operations or student performance;
• multiple school board vacancies that disrupt the board’s ability to govern, or;
• systemic inequities in educational access, resources or outcomes among certain student groups, such as students from low-income households.

Consequences for chronic underperformance can escalate from a two-year probationary period to targeted oversight measures such as appointing a state monitor, reassigning powers of the school board, replacing school district leadership, reallocating money to prioritize schools designated as low-performing, and even a state takeover. 

The bill also sets up parameters to designate individual public schools as low-performing based on their students’ proficiency rates, graduation rates or school ratings. Persistently underperforming schools could also face: 

• replacement of their principal and other key administrators
• direct management by the Nevada Department of Education
• transfer of school management to the city or county where the school is located
• conversion to a charter school, or 
• conversion to an innovation school, which would be managed by a team of at least two teachers/administrators with a plan to turn the school around approved by the school board.
  • Lower-performing schools can also team up to form a network. 

The idea of converting low-performing schools into charters is not new. The mechanism was passed into law in 2015 under Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval, but was abolished in 2019. 

These corrective actions would be implemented for an initial six-year period that could be extended if the schools don’t show significant improvement, or made permanent. 

The Nevada State Education Association said in a statement to The Indy that the bill sets up schools to fail while promoting private schools. 

“It’s punitive policymaking dressed as accountability, with no investment in what our schools actually need to improve,” the union said in the statement. “This will disproportionately impact schools and districts with higher concentrations of poverty.” 

Expanding school choice 

In a twist on school choice programs such as Education Savings Accounts and Opportunity Scholarships that have struggled to gain traction in Nevada’s Democrat-controlled Legislature, Lombardo’s bill proposes using public funds to support students leaving a low-performing school — including the option of paying for their private school tuition. 

Students who are at a chronically low-performing or overcrowded school and want to attend an alternative district school or certain charter or private schools would be eligible to receive support from the bill’s Nevada Integrity in Academic Funding program, which would allocate money to parents to cover qualifying educational expenses such as tuition and fees and specialized services for students with disabilities. The bill appropriates $850,000 to set up the program, but doesn’t fund it beyond that. 

The bill states any money appropriated for the program must not come out of state or federal education funding, which is restricted under the Nevada Constitution and federal law and “will not reduce the statewide base per pupil funding amount.”

Lombardo’s bill also proposes expanding open enrollment policies that allow students to attend a school other than the one they are assigned, or zoned for, based on their address. Most school districts already have policies that allow students to apply to attend a different school within the district provided there are open seats, but typically don’t provide transportation.

Lombardo proposed similar legislation in his 2023 education omnibus bill, AB400, though that provision was amended out. Assm. Selena Torres-Fossett (D-Las Vegas) also introduced a similar open zoning bill this session, AB533, though her bill hasn’t made progress since being voted out of her Assembly Education Committee in early April. 

Lombardo’s new bill would also require school districts to post online how many available spots they have in each grade in each school. It would set up a two-tiered lottery system if the number of applicants exceeds availability, giving priority to students zoned for low-performing schools.

Under the bill, school districts are expected to provide transportation services or provide a subsidy to students from a low-performing school who are seeking to transfer to another district school rated three stars or higher. Lack of publicly funded bus transportation can prevent students from leaving their neighborhood school.

Will opt-out sex ed bill be vetoed once again?  

The latest bill attempting to update or expand access to sex education in Nevada comes as at least five previous bills on the topic have failed in the past 12 years, including a 2017 bill vetoed by Sandoval. 

Under AB205, sponsored by Assm. Heather Goulding (D-Reno), all students would receive sex education unless their parents opt out. Under the current system, students don’t receive this education unless their parents opt in. 

Nevada is among a handful of states that require parents to opt their students into sex education, according to SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change, national nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., dedicated to advancing sex education. 

According to a fact sheet attached to the bill, in Nevada's largest school district of about 300,000 K-12 students, 8 percent of Clark County School District high school students on average (between the 2017-18 school year and this school year) did not participate in sex education because of unresponsive parents. 

Sarah Adler, a lobbyist representing the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) who is working with Goulding on the bill, said that’s the population they are trying to target. 

Adler argues that unlike previous bills, AB205 isn’t mandating what sex education curriculum should be taught, leaving that decision to local school boards, and that it doesn’t opt students in through their final year of high school. 

She added that parents will be notified before the content is introduced and be able to opt out at any point in the school year. 

“Assm. Goulding and ACOG are hopeful that the governor will take action that supports these kids of nonresponsive parents and supports teachers who would rather be putting their time and energy into effective relationships and communication and education with their students rather than chasing the parents’ permission,” Adler said. 

Lombardo’s spokeswoman said she did not want to comment on where Lombardo stands on the bill before it arrives at his desk. 

Here’s a timeline of other sex education bills that have failed over the years. 

• 2023: AB357, which would have required parents to opt their students out of sex ed and required school boards to adopt evidence-based, factual curriculum, made it out of its first committee, but died without receiving a vote from the full Assembly. 
• 2019: AB295, would have created a comprehensive sex-education curriculum, died without getting a hearing. 
• 2017: AB348, which would have allowed parents the option to opt their student in for sex education curriculum for all their K-12 school years and would also have periodically updated course content to be medically accurate, passed out of the Legislature but was vetoed by Sandoval. 
• 2015: SB301, which would require sex education instruction materials to be available online before they are approved by a school board and while they are in use, and ban consultants or guest speakers from providing sex education instruction, died without getting a hearing. 
• 2013: AB230, which would have required age-appropriate, medically accurate sex education curriculum at school districts, passed out of the Assembly but died in the Senate.

Reading Assignments

Top Democratic lawmaker brings back proposal for funding for charter school raises

A charter school advocate called the proposal a “meaningful step to ensuring all public school educators … are treated fairly.”

Extra Credit 

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Teens’ bill would expand protections against antisemitism

The bill advanced out of the Assembly Committee on Government Affairs on Friday after it was amended to change the definition of antisemitism to one supported by Jewish groups.