COMMENTARY:

Ten years ago, our country entered the greatest economic recession of our lifetimes. Nowhere were the effects felt as strongly as in Nevada. As a result, in 2010, a special legislative session was called to deal with the crisis, and a billion dollars was ultimately cut from the budget. The vast majority of those cuts came from education.

Now, 10 years later, an entire generation of students has moved through our schools feeling the effects of these recession-era policies. It’s been 10 years’ experience with funding and program decisions that affected 500,000 students statewide. In this decade, we have learned two things when it comes to funding our students’ education.

First, we have learned that prescriptive funding with built-in accountability systems and a return on student outcomes is the only way. We have also learned that while categorical programs with their prescriptive directive were a step in the right direction, it is clear now that they leave tens of thousands of students without the resources they need. Continuation of this approach creates “haves” and “have nots.”

Second, it is time to transition to a new weighted funding formula that is based on student needs; where money follows the student into the building and must be spent on proven intervention strategies that result in better student achievement. And we need to pay educators adequately, as professionals, so that they can live and thrive in the community in which they teach. With the high vacancy rate of educators, this is a critical component to funding our schools — recruiting and retaining educators.

The progress made under former Gov. Brian Sandoval in the past three legislative sessions has been a valiant effort — especially when bipartisan efforts produced results. We have made progress toward funding our schools, but we still haven’t addressed the state’s systemically flawed funding system. The 2019 legislative session under Gov. Steve Sisolak must address this issue.

Education advocates all agree that we need to fix our funding formula, but there is more than one way to do it. One school of thought is that we need to find an additional $1 billion to $3 billion to fix it now. Proponents of this argue that a “fund our future” approach requires a massive investment of state dollars now. But these proponents offer no realistic source of revenue to match the price tag. The reality of Nevada politics is that this approach is untenable. It’s a nice debate but will produce no results. Our students cannot afford the empty politics of sloganeering.

We believe the alternative path is to reform our funding system with a more strategic approach over two legislative sessions. We also believe that we will need more than just state funding to provide the needed resources for Clark County schools.

For too long, Clark County has not received its fair share of funding from the state, especially considering Southern Nevada produces the most statewide revenue. Accordingly, the Clark County Education Association is advocating that a local revenue stream be established that would provide the “additional” dollars our schools need. Pursuing a local revenue stream would give our community a direct say in the matter. Let’s let our community vote on a measure that provides direct funding to every student — no matter what school they attend — that must be spent on education programs that are advancing student achievement.

The students of Clark County have waited far too long for what is right. When we fight for better outcomes here at home and outline the need for additional dollars to achieve them, we believe that our community will do the right thing and step up for the sake of our students.

It’s time to turn the next page of Nevada history and begin a new era in education during which we provide the very best for our students, our educators get the respect and pay that they deserve and our schools are the envy of the nation. Sisolak and the incoming 2019 legislature have a unique opportunity to make this happen.

We have a limited amount of time to get things done. We cannot afford to let the next session get hijacked over the politics of sloganeering with unrealistic billion-dollar solutions that are dead on arrival. That’s why we are building a Fund Our Schools, Now movement made up of tens of thousands of educators, parents, students, support staff, administrators and community members who are ready and willing to stand up for public education. We will be there on Day One — and we will be here when the session ends. So will our students.

Vikki Courtney is president of the Clark County Education Association.