EDITORIAL: Here they go again

In business, people look to replicate successful ideas. In the sclerotic world of public education policy, any success outside of the traditional system puts a target on your back.

There’s widespread agreement that Nevada’s public school system is not doing its job. Governor after governor has promised to improve it. Yet, reading and math proficiency rates remain low. The state’s improvement in graduation rates came only after politicians gutted more stringent requirements.

In 2015, Gov. Brian Sandoval and legislative Republicans passed a small school choice program called Opportunity Scholarships. It provides dollar-for-dollar tax credits to businesses that donate to a scholarship-granting organization. These organizations award scholarships so kids can attend a private school. The amount of annual tax credits is under $7 million, a pittance in the overall budget.

The data suggest the program is making a difference. A 2023 report found more than 75 percent of K-8 students using a scholarship and taking certain standardized tests increased their reading scores. In math, it was 74 percent. For third graders to eighth graders, Nevada’s overall proficiency rate is 41.3 percent in reading and 32.6 percent in math. Given these dismal numbers, someone unfamiliar with the seamy side of politics might assume legislators are jumping to expand the Opportunity Scholarship program.

Wrong. Assemblywoman Daniele Monroe-Moreno, D-North Las Vegas, is sponsoring Assembly Bill 441. It would impose new restrictions on the groups that award such support. That includes a requirement that they spend their dollars within 18 months of receiving them. But these organizations often create reserve accounts to ensure they have enough money to fund current students through high school. Such proactive measures are necessary because Democrats keep trying to undermine the program.

“Requiring SGOs to use contributions to ‘repay’ tax credits that may or may not have been awarded to or claimed by a taxpayer is unreasonable, impracticable and diverts resources away from our primary mission,” Kim Dyson with the AAA Scholarship Foundation wrote in opposing the bill. The bill would also prioritize current recipients and their siblings, making it harder to add new students to the program.

In a separate proposal, Senate Bill 460, Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro, D-Las Vegas, also wants to impose new regulations on private schools that serve Opportunity Scholarship students.

None of these moves is well intentioned. Democrats want to shrink the program so they can eliminate it with minimal fallout.

While education reformers seek to replicate successful initiatives, Democrats generally seek to destroy them in service to the status quo. Nowhere is that dichotomy seen more clearly than in school choice.