Charter schools — and big ideological divides about school choice that they invoke — are poised to once again take center stage in the crucial final negotiations of the Nevada legislative session. 

Mixed feelings about how the state should prioritize its public charters at a time when funding levels for all traditional public schools are less than ideal bubbled to the surface on Wednesday, when a Nevada budget committee rejected Gov. Joe Lombardo’s request for raises for charter school educators while extending similar raises for teachers in traditional settings. That arrangement received additional approval from the Legislature’s two money committees when they closed a budget on K-12 education funding on Friday. 

It ignited a political battle between the Republican governor — who says the issue is a red line for him — and legislative Democrats who are leaving the door open for charter raises down the line even though they rejected the new funding initiative for now.

Caught in the middle are charter school officials, who said in interviews with The Nevada Independent that without teacher raises, it will be hard to sustain progress made in recent years and might lead to staffing cuts.

"I really hope there's some room for them to realize that they're kind of holding the teachers hostage, and by extension, the students that they teach,” said Ignacio Prado, the executive director of Futuro Academy, a K-5 charter school in East Las Vegas. “And that's really not the way to express a policy disagreement.”

Last week’s decisions were the latest in the years of friction in Carson City regarding raises for teachers and support staff at charter schools, which are taxpayer funded but operate somewhat autonomously and are sometimes promoted as alternatives for families dissatisfied with traditional schools. Lombardo touted them as part of his school choice agenda in his State of the State address, although they tend to attract more bipartisan support than other types of school choice initiatives — several Democratic lawmakers work in charter schools.

Charter school employees were left out of a bill in the 2023 session that provided $250 million in matching funds for K-12 teacher and support staff raises; their exclusion prompted a legislative standoff that led to a special session immediately after the regular session adjourned, although they were never added back in. 

The legislation, along with the historic increase in overall K-12 spending, allowed some school districts to raise pay by 20 percent, but some of those districts said the raises could be discontinued if the funding wasn’t renewed or made permanent.

Lombardo’s recommended budget sought to make those raises permanent, while also looping charter school teachers into the pay bump at a cost of $38 million. While Democrats opted against the charter school raises, they emphasized that the issue was not dead in the water. 

Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro (D-Las Vegas) said the issue stems from how the $38 million amount was calculated — by looking at the number of students in state charter schools, a different process than the raises for teachers in 2023, which was based on staffing levels. Additionally, the figure was determined because there are a similar number of students in charter schools statewide as there are in the Washoe County School District, which received about $38 million in teacher raises from the 2023 proposal.

“We are interested in giving charter school raises, and yes, we are working on that from a policy standpoint, but if they want to be included in the same fashion that [SB231] funds were given, then not only do we need to do that on a per-pupil and per-staff basis, but we also need to have those schools and [state charter school authority] come to us,” Cannizzaro said at Friday’s hearing.

In a Wednesday statement, Lombardo said he would not sign an education budget that does not include equal pay for charter school teachers and permanent teacher pay hikes. He added that he would veto an education budget bill “that falls short of addressing a serious need for accountability, transparency, and real parental choice.”

“All 63 legislators have been aware of my position for months, and it is my expectation that they will pass a bill that improves education for all Nevada children,” the statement said.

Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager (D-Las Vegas) had a different take, saying in a statement that Lombardo has never told Democratic legislative leaders about that supposed line in the sand “despite us asking him for his budget priorities as we have been closing the budgets.”

Another place for these raises could be in Lombardo’s education bill, which he previewed at a press conference last month but that has not been officially introduced. He indicated that charter school teacher raises would be part of the bill, in addition to $17 million for transportation to charter schools.

However, it comes at a precarious time for new spending. The general fund budget that legislators approve next month must be $191 million lower than the one Lombardo introduced at the start of the year, while the size of the State Education Fund — a primary source of education dollars — for the next two budget years will be about $160 million less than what was projected in December. The Legislature’s budget committees last week approved tapping into $116 million from an emergency education account to combat the drop in expected revenue.  

The budget crunch — which economists largely attributed to decreased state sales tax collections because of less tourism to Nevada — will also make it less likely that lawmakers approve bills with a price tag.

Additionally, public schools are looking to tighten their belts with state K-12 education projected to remain relatively flat for the next two years and uncertainty around federal funding. The Trump administration has already made attempts to claw back certain pandemic relief dollars and cut funding for schools allegedly engaged in “illegal” diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. 

Warnings

Charter schools — which recently took the title of second largest “school district” in Nevada with approximately 69,000 students — operate outside of traditional school districts, but also receive mostly the same public funding that districts get, excluding local funding for facilities. Last session, lawmakers approved Lombardo’s request to provide transportation funding for charter schools for the first time — it was a big win because previously, few charters could afford to offer transportation, largely limiting enrollment to students with their own transportation to get to their school. 

But advocates argue that leaving charter school educators out of the allocations for raises creates inequity between them and their district counterparts. 

Following the 2023 session, some charter schools — including Doral Academy of Northern Nevada, a K-8 school in Reno, and Futuro Academy — offered raises to their staff to keep up with school districts by tapping into their per-pupil funding that could have otherwise been invested in programs and curriculum. Those that could not offer raises reportedly lost staff, said Melissa Mackedon, executive director of the State Public Charter School Authority.

Prado, Futuro’s executive director, said his school’s pay increases resulted in strong staff retention rates. 

“They're public employees,” Prado said. “They shouldn't be feeling like they're in a tug of war between … two different views of what the best school is. They should just be treated the same way.”

Prado and Angela Orr, the Doral Academy principal, said without ongoing funding for charter school raises, it will be hard to sustain the progress they made on staff pay. 

Prado said he’s committed to keeping teachers’ compensation at the same level, but that will mean looking for other areas in the budget where he can cut, including support staff positions. 

“Generally speaking, we're not going to want to cut the core teaching staff, but it's going to be paraprofessionals,” he said. “That means less services for students, less programs for students.”

But Democrats have sought to reassure the charter school proponents that the issue was still on the table.

Assm. Selena Torress-Fossett (D-Las Vegas), the executive director of a Las Vegas charter school, said that raises for charter school teachers is “something that we’re committed to continuing to work for and advocate for.”

A contentious issue

Charter schools are a particularly fraught topic in Nevada. Opponents to using state dollars for charter schools have argued that any education investment that is not supporting the traditional public school model could exacerbate longstanding problems in the core system of full-service, neighborhood public schools. Additionally, critics have raised concerns about the schools potentially attracting more affluent students who have the means to provide their own transportation, and being subject to “weak regulations and lax oversight.” 

However, proponents have maintained that charter schools offer students an opportunity to receive a free education in a setting that sometimes meets their needs better than their designated public schools. 

The budget subcommittee’s five Republicans opposed the measure, which combined the requests for maintaining the existing raises and not expanding them to charter school teachers.

“These teachers are public teachers — they deserve raises also,” Sen. Carrie Buck (R-Henderson), a former charter school administrator and the president of a charter school foundation, said on Wednesday.

In response, Yeager said it would be “utterly irresponsible” to oppose the measure — a comment that drew swift condemnation from the Better Nevada PAC, a Lombardo-affiliated group.

On Friday, six Republicans opposed closing the entire K-12 education budget because of the charter school dispute.

“I cannot accept the fact that we are not giving the charter school teachers, who are public employees, the raises that I feel that they deserve,” Senate Minority Leader Robin Titus (R-Wellington) said.

In response to Republican opposition, Cannizzaro said “it is wildly inappropriate to vote no on this budget unless you don’t support education.”