John Augenblick, center, testifies Thursday before the Legislative Committee on School Funding Adequacy, along with colleagues Justin Silverstein and Amanda Brown of Augenblick, Palaich and Associates. The consultants recommended that Nevadans spend nearly $3,600 more per student each year. Photo by The Associated Press

A consultant recommended Thursday that Nevadans spend nearly $1.3 billion more per year on public education so that the state's students meet achievement standards, a figure that stunned lawmakers and education activists.

The figure suggested by Denver-based Augenblick, Palaich and Associates represents nearly $3,600 more per student each year for Nevada's 415,000 public school students. Under Nevada's current funding formula, school districts get about $4,500 per student each year from the Legislature.

The recommendation prompted some ardent education supporters to express concern that lawmakers might ignore the suggestion because of the high cost.

"I am kind of upset with the number," said Donna Hoffman-Anspach, leader of Nevadans for Quality Education, which she described as a nonpartisan activist group.

"It could be considered so ridiculous that no one will want to go there, and it will end up on the shelf," she said.

Another education advocate echoed that the amount was unrealistic.

"I question the premise that more money is the answer," said Joe Enge, chairman of EdWatch Nevada, a conservative education watchdog group.

Enge said students achieve when their parents make sure they attend classes and do their course work.

Both attended a meeting of the Legislative Committee on School Funding Adequacy to hear suggestions on what the state needs to spend to meet student achievement standards, including the federal No Child Left Behind requirements, by 2013-14.

The consultant's report was based on education spending in the 2003-04 year. Student enrollment has grown by 45,000 students in the past three years.

Keith Rheault, state superintendent of public instruction, said during a recess that the state must spend an additional $300 million during the coming two-year budget period just to cover costs of enrollment growth.

The consultant's recommendation does not include school construction costs or spending on transportation and buses.

Rheault also questioned whether the No Child Left Behind Standards can be achieved, in part due to the influx of students who don't speak English.

The consultant's recommendation was met with a brief silence by the committee and audience in the hearing room in the Legislative Building.

"We operated under the theory you wanted that number," consultant John Augenblick said, adding that the state could achieve the 2013-14 goal by increasing current education spending by 5 percent, or $468 million, a year for the next seven years.

Augenblick said the spending recommendations came from a series of private panel discussions with 39 educators across the state. His committee was paid $225,000 by the Legislature last January to prepare the study.

"We are simply interpreting what people in this state said was necessary," Augenblick said. "What we believe is not necessarily that number."

But Sens. Bob Beers and Warren Hardy, both R-Las Vegas, questioned why the findings relied so heavily on the views of people working in education.

"This consultant is perhaps the only advocate of gathering together a group of education employees in a closed room without any public observation," Beers said. "They asked educators what we should do."

Several legislators also were concerned because the report did not detail how the additional $1.3 billion should be spent.

Although the findings call for full-day kindergarten across the state, pre- and after-school programs, Saturday and summer classes, no mention is made of the cost of the programs. Nor does the report state what teachers and other educators should be paid or how many new teachers should be hired.

Assemblywoman Debbie Smith, D-Sparks, advised those in attendance to be calm and "not hysterical."

Smith asked the legislative staff to develop a more easily understood analysis of the report in time for a workshop to discuss the findings in more detail. The public may participate in the 10 a.m. Aug. 31 workshop at the Sawyer Building in Las Vegas and by teleconference at the Legislative Building in Carson City.

During the meeting, Nevadans for Quality Education called on legislators to earmark at least $300 million of the state's current surplus for public education in 2007.

"There is a problem with funding education in Nevada," Hoffman-Anspach said.

"There isn't enough money to go around, but there should be, " she said.

The campaign manager for U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons, the Republican nominee for governor, said the Denver firm has a "track record" of going into states and determining that education funding is too low.

But Robert Uithoven said Gibbons had yet to read the report and supports an increase in education funding by channelling more funds directly to classrooms.

State Sen. Dina Titus, the Democratic nominee for governor, said the recommendation asked that the state do too much too fast.

"It certainly should be our goal to raise the per-pupil spending. And right now we're much below the (national) average," she said.

Titus said she hopes the study brings stakeholders to the table to make reasonable decisions on how much money the state needs to invest in education.

Review-Journal reporter Antonio Planas contributed to this report.