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Education Week -- the Washington-based sister publication of Teacher Magazine, has issued a state-by-state report card on public education.
Staff writer Bess Keller rated Silver State schools about average, with grades of "C" or "C-minus."
The magazine's editor, Virginia Edwards, confirms the twin publications receive most of their revenue from subscriptions sold to education professionals. So it's not shocking that the unmistakable undercurrent here is to lobby for more tax funding, and particularly for a centralization of school construction funding at the state level.
"On the whole, Nevadans have resisted using tax money to address the social problems bred by growth," writes Ms. Keller. "The anti-tax forces make some exceptions for education, but only a few."
Ms. Keller, of course, fails to consider that the reason Nevada leads the nation in growth may be precisely because of economic opportunities created by its relatively low-tax climate.
But is there, as Ms. Keller and her magazine assume, a direct correlation between educational performance and increased spending on the public schools?
Gary Huggins of Texas is executive director of the Education Leaders Council, an organization of state education chiefs and state board of education members "focusing on substantive school reforms," also based in Washington, D.C.
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"To give you a good quick answer, there is absolutely not any correlation between spending and achievement," Mr. Huggins declared Friday.
"Most studies show the more that's spent the less we seem to get, and these are studies that go all the way back to 1889. ... In 1989 Eric Hanushek at University of Rochester reviewed (a number of) studies, and found overwhelmingly that ... spending and student achievement showed little correlation."
Why?
Judy Cresanta of the Nevada Policy Research Institute says that from 1983 to 1993 Nevada's "education funding went up 194 percent, while student population grew only 40 percent. But then, she said, "we found that the percentage of funds actually making it the classroom was significantly reduced.
"Back in the 1970s almost every county had at least 70 percent of education spending going to the classroom. In 1993, in some counties it was as low as 47 percent. In Clark County, only 49 percent of education funds now reach the classroom. So if they're putting more money in, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to the kids, anyway."
Instead, using state figures, NPRI found that increased funding went primarily to fund administrative overhead, union-mandated teacher benefits, and loan interest payments.
"There's also a lot more money going into slush funds called 'all support'," Ms. Cresanta adds, "a lot of which is going to defend parent-initiated lawsuits against the school districts. That category is up 1,465 percent."
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