Decentralized district would better serve schools, students, families

The Review-Journal recently wrote in an editorial that the school board must "rethink the entire system." The RJ is right. The Clark County Education Association favors an entirely new approach to school governance, one that has succeeded in many school systems across the country and around the world: decentralized school-based budgeting and decision making.

Under a decentralized system, individual schools would have control over their own budgets, parents would have a greater say about what happens at their child's school, teachers and principals would collaborate to drive better outcomes for students, and the fiscal integrity of the school system would be preserved. A decentralized system would necessarily cut mandated spending from central administration and direct resources where they are needed most: the classroom.

It will take creative thinking to get our school district on the right track. That's why, on behalf of the 18,000 teachers of the CCEA, I'd like to thank the Review-Journal for that Dec. 22 editorial. Though we hardly agree with everything in the editorial, we believe that it is appropriate to point out the areas where we do agree and where we think we can make progress to improve the quality of education for the 320,000 children of the Clark County School District.

Clearly, the RJ and CCEA agree that teachers deserves a raise — although the editorial states "an awful lot" of teachers deserve a pay bump, while the CCEA says all teachers do. We think the old salary schedule provided an insufficient market force to reduce teacher vacancies and drive highly qualified teachers to the schools that need them the most. While we disagree with ideas such as eliminating the CCSD Police Department, we do agree with the Editorial Board that the system as a whole needs rethinking.

Currently, the Nevada Legislature is engaged in a conversation about reorganizing the Clark County School District. This conversation was spurred by the passage of Assembly Bill 394 in the 2015 legislative session. With that legislation, we see an opportunity to have a real conversation about reforming education delivery in the nation's fifth-largest school system.

In furtherance of "rethinking the entire system," CCEA presented the decentralization idea to the AB394 Committee on Friday. We highlighted different decentralization and school-based budgeting practices from all over the country. Large districts in Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City are already implementing decentralization, and if done correctly, it might be the sort of fundamental change the Clark County School District so desperately needs to better serve our children and families.

We thank you for recognizing the hard work of classroom teachers in Southern Nevada, and the public has our pledge to continue to work with education leaders, community leaders and legislators to affect positive outcomes for our community's children.

— Vikki Courtney is president of the Clark County Education Association.