Nevada charter school teachers would get raises under emergency bill

CARSON CITY — Nevada Senate Minority Leader Robin Titus introduced an emergency bill Wednesday that would give pay raises to public charter school teachers.

“Charter school teachers work tirelessly to educate our students, and they deserve a clear, focused effort to improve their pay,” Titus, R-Wellington, said in a statement.

Senate Bill 506 would provide a direct pay increase for charter school teachers by making an appropriation to the Interim Finance Committee, which would then allocate the funds to the State Public Charter School Authority.

Legislative Democrats have already included charter school teacher pay raises in both Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro’s education bill as well as Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager’s bill to give bonuses to teachers in schools with high vacancy rates by dipping into the state’s Rainy Day Fund.

Republicans have expressed concerns about the various provisions in those bills and protested the education budget that passed without charter school raises.

“This emergency bill delivers that without the added baggage of unrelated and problematic policies, setting it apart from the convoluted approaches we’ve seen elsewhere,” Titus said in the Wednesday statement.

Titus’ bill proposes taking funds from the general fund, and it would cost approximately $19.3 million each year, or nearly $40 million for the 2025-27 biennium.

“Dr. Titus’ legislation is unnecessary since Speaker Yeager’s AB 398, which has been co-sponsored by the Assembly minority leader, passed the assembly with bipartisan support,” said Leo Villalobos, executive director of the Nevada Assembly Democratic Caucus, in a statement.

Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on X.