EDITORIAL: Clear winner in competing education plans

It’s a bad sign if the people who run Nevada’s struggling education system are happy with proposed changes.

The legislative session ends Monday. Two years after dumping millions more into the system, lawmakers have focused more on results. That’s important, but simply repeating a buzzword — accountability — isn’t enough. Changes must be considered on their merits.

Senate Bill 460 is the proposed education legislation from Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro, D-Las Vegas. She claims it would “give parents more confidence in our education system.” The Clark County Education Association says it worked with her on the bill. That is a red flag, because the union is an obstacle to substantive reforms.

This becomes clear once you dig into the details. It would establish a pathway to form a School District Oversight Board. That sounds imposing, but it would meet only if a district’s trustees didn’t follow state law. Even if formed, it would have extremely limited authority.

The schools that would suffer the most under Ms. Cannizzaro’s scheme are charter and private campuses that accept students using Opportunity Scholarships. They would face new regulations. This would include allowing school districts to object to new charter schools. It would also stack the board of the State Charter School Authority with people likely to be hostile to charter schools.

The focus on these schools is misplaced, because they are already subjected to the highest form of accountability — unlike their traditional public school counterparts, they can close if they don’t deliver.

Gov. Joe Lombardo’s education proposal is Assembly Bill 584. One aspect of it that deserves strong support is a requirement that teachers learn about the science of reading, including phonics. Phonics has helped produce tremendous reading gains in Mississippi. It could do the same here.

The bill would also give escape options to students in persistently failing schools. These could include funds to attend a private school. Gov. Lombardo also wants to strip power from school administrators and school boards that oversee repeated poor performance, potentially resulting in a state takeover. If that happens, he’ll need to ensure state officials can modify union contracts.

One concern is that Gov. Lombardo’s bill would pave the way for nonvoting school board members to become voting members. Neutering voter oversight of those governing public schools is unlikely to improve things. Unsurprisingly, CCEA is much less enthusiastic about the governor’s bill.

Gov. Lombardo has pledged to veto the education budget if the Legislature doesn’t approve substantial education reforms. Ms. Cannizzaro’s proposal doesn’t meet that standard, but Gov. Lombardo’s would be a step forward.