US Education Secretary John King hears Las Vegas educators’ wish lists

After calling for a return to a more well-rounded curriculum in schools, U.S. Education Secretary John King spent an hour fielding requests Thursday from Las Vegas educators and leaders who hope for more support, but fewer restrictions, from the federal government.

Finding a way to raise teacher salaries to a livable level and increasing funding for English language learners topped the wish list of Clark County School Board members present at a roundtable with King at the downtown Las Vegas Academy of the Arts.

Teachers, meanwhile, asked for more autonomy in the classroom and less pressure to raise test scores. And Academy students also stressed the importance of making extracurricular programs — such as dance, music or the liberal arts — a central mission of every school.

“Those add-ons … are the focus at our school. That’s what we audition for. That’s why we want to be here,” said Amanda Rust, an Academy senior and student body president.

“That’s also why students don’t want to leave,” she added. “Of course, education comes first, but at the same time (a student’s) passion is not first but at the same level.”

Rust spoke directly to the message that King delivered to the adults sitting around a table in Principal Scott Walker’s conference room.

Following on the heels of the recent passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act — a replacement for the controversial No Child Left Behind — King urged educators to continue testing students in core classes to gauge their achievement. However, he asked for help in devoting more resources to offering a well-rounded education, especially to poor and minority children.

“Doing science and social studies and the arts isn’t counter to improving your academic outcomes. It is the way to improving your academic outcomes,” King said.

“Too much of the time you see schools where they say, ‘Oh, I’m sorry. Our reading scores weren’t good last year so we’ll do even less science and social studies and have fewer field trips and have less exposure to learning beyond the classroom,’” he added. “But actually doing all of those things make reading scores get worse.”

The visit to Las Vegas Academy provided a perfect backdrop to King’s request: During his tour of the campus, the education secretary watched student dancers, an award-winning string quartet and a philharmonic orchestra performance.

King is expected to draw even more attention to his department’s work on helping local schools step away from the No Child Left Behind legacy during a visit to communities in Oklahoma and Arkansas on Friday.

King was confirmed by the Senate last month.

Contact Neal Morton at nmorton@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0279. Find him on Twitter: @nealtmorton