Shifting numbers are a source of frustration for legislators and the governor seeking to ensure they fund districts enough that they pass along a pay raise to teachers — something Gov. Steve Sisolak promised but can’t force districts to enact.

In the elementary school world, seemingly small tasks take practice and patience. Kindergarten teacher Virginia Mosier, who asked her students to give themselves a “tiger hug” on a recent morning, knows this all too well. Her students, standing in a tidy line by the door, complied. They crossed their arms over their chests as a hush fell over the group. Mosier smiled in approval.

Reporter Michelle Rindels sits down with ENN’s education funding experts for a conversation about why the funding formula overhaul was necessary in the first place, what looks good and what’s missing from the bill that just dropped, as lawmakers gear up for the bill’s first hearing next week.

Legislative money committees have made some major cuts to the governor’s K-12 and higher education budgets as they try to address a shortfall some say is at least $100 million and ensure school districts have enough money to deliver a teacher pay raise the governor promised.

In an effort to help school districts that say they can’t afford teacher raises promised by Gov. Steve Sisolak, Democratic Assembly Speaker Jason Frierson will be presenting an amendment Tuesday that will allow individual counties to raise their sales tax by a quarter-cent to support education.

With just three weeks left before lawmakers gavel out, that leaves a lot to digest before possible passage. A hearing next week will shed more light on the plan, but in the meantime, here’s a primer on the high-profile bill:

The introduction of the legislation marks lawmakers’ most dramatic step yet toward revamping the complicated formula that operates like a seesaw, with state funding to districts decreasing as local funding increases. The existing system has been widely panned as an inadequate model that doesn’t take into account the needs of today’s highly diverse student body.

Clark County Education Association members have authorized a strike at the beginning of the next school year, union officials announced Sunday. It’s hinged, though, on what happens in Carson City before sine die.

Select education, business and political leaders who attended private briefings this week about the long-awaited bill to modernize the state’s K-12 funding formula had mixed reactions about the plan, with some saying it looks promising and others going so far as to suggest it would be “devastating” to some rural school districts.

Members of Southern Nevada’s business, education and gaming communities are getting a private sneak preview of a massive and much-anticipated bill to overhaul the state’s funding formula this week, although no language from the bill has been shared publicly with only four weeks to go before the end of the legislative session.

His booming voice isn’t the only reason Lionel Stoxstell can capture students' attention. They call him “OG,” slang for original gangster. It’s a nod to his storied past involving gangs and drugs, which he shares with them in small doses, knowing that maybe — just maybe — it will help similarly struggling students.

A drafting error in a bill from the 2017 legislative session has doubled the amount of money in the upcoming two-year budget allocated to a state scholarship program that helps low- and middle-income students attend private school.

Gov. Steve Sisolak’s recommended budget is about $107 million short of providing school districts enough money to pull off both the 3 percent cost of living raise and the 2 percent merit pay increase he promised teachers at the outset of his term, according to a new analysis released by the nonpartisan Guinn Center for Policy Priorities.

Assembly members voted 28-12, on party lines, to approve AB136. The bill would require school districts and the Nevada System of Higher Education to pay the full prevailing wage for work done on school construction projects, rather than the 90 percent required under existing law. Prevailing wage is a sort of minimum wage for laborers.

With a little more than a month left in the 120-day session, the bill implementing an ambitious new school funding formula is still nowhere to be found. It’s agitating legislators and observers who fear that they’re missing a window of opportunity and won't be able to put together a formula that will work for students and stand the test of time.

Their only homework assignment could be done in a matter of seconds. Andrew Magness, a teacher at Valley High School, asked students gathered in his classroom Wednesday to look into a mirror and practice asking the following questions: “Are you thinking about killing yourself?” “Are you thinking of suicide?”

The Nevada System of Higher Education prides itself on having a diverse student body. It’s a minority-majority system, and, in September, U.S. News and World Report ranked UNLV the most diverse undergraduate college campus in the nation for the second consecutive year. But it’s one thing to enroll students. It’s another to see them graduate.

Large class sizes, not enough mental health workers, transportation headaches and inadequate funding emerged as some of the primary concerns among educators, students and parents who participated in a town hall-style discussion about Nevada’s K-12 education system on Saturday.