Everyone’s a ‘have-not’

What made the Clark County School District's recent math test failures so staggering was their lack of discrimination. Failure was the most common grade on end-of-semester exams from the inner city to suburbia, from sparkling new campuses to crumbling old ones, from majority-white schools to those dominated by Spanish speakers.

Almost no school was spared the humiliation of inexcusable failure rates. Overall, about 90 percent of high school students failed the Algebra 1, Geometry and Algebra 2 tests, around 54 percent of eighth-graders bombed their Algebra 1 exams and almost 80 percent of eighth-graders flunked pre-algebra -- basic math.

Such widespread failure would likely be unimaginable in other major cities because in most metropolitan areas there's more than one school district.

Competition in education is an amazing thing. When parents have choices in where to send their kids, school districts face increased pressure to deliver results and be held accountable for their shortcomings.

Alas, the Clark County School District is a lumbering monopoly. Don't buy administrators' claims that its "regional" management structure is comparable to a decentralized model. Everyone answers to the same policies and curriculum decisions. Parents from one end of the Beltway to the other struggle to have their concerns heard and are routinely denied answers from a detached chain of command. Anyone who has lived in or been educated within a smaller school district knows that the sense of neighborhood ownership of public education doesn't exist here.

That most of the valley's children are lousy at math -- and appear to fall farther behind with each passing year -- doesn't offer encouragement to those who have long hoped the Clark County School District is capable of reinventing itself. The scourges of social promotion and grade inflation carry the day.

With taxpayer and parent dissatisfaction high, hope for meaningful reform remains elusive. Yes, Superintendent Walt Rulffes has put a handful of struggling campuses under his direct supervision, allowing those principals more autonomy. But the bureaucracy remains staunchly against wholesale change. Who can forget the local teachers union urging the Clark County School Board to promote Mr. Rulffes, then a deputy superintendent, and turn away outside reformers because the foundering district needed "stability"?

Eight years ago, tens of thousands of Clark County residents signed an initiative petition that would have asked voters whether they favored breaking up the school district. But the question never made it to the general election ballot because, under qualification standards since ruled unconstitutional, the petition from former state lawmaker Sandra Tiffany of Henderson fell 18 valid signatures short in Mineral County. Last year, a bill to launch a study and create a time line for deconsolidation of the Clark County School District couldn't even clear the Republican-controlled Senate.

Clark County already has the country's fifth-largest school system, with more than 300,000 students. In 10 years, that number is expected to top 450,000. Which begs the question: If the school district can't manage the instruction of its enrollment now, how bad will the valley's schools be a decade from now?

"The argument always used against breaking up the school district is that doing so would create 'haves' and 'have-nots,' " Ms. Tiffany said. "Well, these math scores prove that everyone's a 'have-not.' "

Nevada's educational establishment and the Legislature can no longer deny that the Clark County School District is in need of an extreme makeover. So why not let the taxpayers who cover the district's multibillion-dollar budget express their thoughts on the matter?

Breaking up the school district would take an act of the Legislature, but the Clark County Commission has the authority to place nonbinding advisory questions before the county's electorate to gauge public opinion on important issues.

Commissioners may argue they have no direct role in education policy, but they routinely accept campaign donations from education special interests. They also hear constituents' complaints about the region's largest bureaucracy. This is an opportunity for members of the state's most powerful elected board to acknowledge their interest in the direction of the Clark County School District. The advisory question could be simple: "Should the Clark County School District be deconsolidated and broken into smaller, independent districts?"

Ms. Tiffany tried this approach when her legislative efforts went nowhere, but the commission would have none of it. With a number of new faces on the panel, it's time for another try.

Who on today's commission might lead such an effort? Probably not Chris Giunchigliani or Tom Collins, former lawmakers whose loyalties lie with the teachers union. And probably not Susan Brager, a former School Board member also allied with the teachers union. Perhaps Chip Maxfield would be willing to run with the ball in his final term. Or Bruce Woodbury.

Or do commissioners favor the miserable status quo?