Bipartisanship in Carson City on plan to reorganize the Clark County School District

The Clark County School District board of trustees has exhibited open hostility toward a plan approved by state lawmakers in 2015 to reorganize the district to give more autonomy to individual campuses, principals and parents.

The trustees went so far as to file a lawsuit — initially without even debating the action in public — in an effort to derail the proposal.

The school board’s intransigence ignores the district’s extensive track record of turning out too many students who lack basic skills. While graduation rates have improved, a significant number of students who go on to college require remediation in math, English or both. Test scores remain among the lowest in the country.

Continuing merrily down the current path is simply not an option.

That’s why it was welcome news to see a bipartisan group of political leaders in Carson City last week come together to thwart the board’s lawsuit. It’s difficult these days to find many issues on which Democrats and Republicans can agree, but Assembly Bill 469 sends a clear signal that lawmakers across the political spectrum are prepared to move forward on the reorganization.

The bill, introduced by Assembly Speaker Jason Frierson, Assembly Minority Leader Paul Anderson, Senate Majority Leader Aaron Ford and Senate Minority Leader Michael Roberson, would codify regulations regarding the overhaul put in place by an interim legislative committee over the past year. The Clark County school trustees had challenged the legality of the process, but the bill would make such concerns irrelevant.

The legislative leaders vowed to fast track AB 469 and have it on the governor’s desk as early as this week. The education committees in both houses advanced the measure on Wednesday.

“I was not here during the interim for the development of this,” said Mr. Frierson, a Democrat. “But I saw the dysfunction and a need to have it addressed.”

Mr. Anderson, a Republican, noted that the school board’s lawsuit was an effort to “obstruct the progress of the reorganization,” adding, “The key for us is we have to keep this thing rolling,” Clark County education officials “may have some issues. That’s fine. We can look at that.”

He’s right. Calls for slowing the process emanate primarily from those whose true motivation is to sabotage this promising reform as a means of preserving their own power.