EDITORIAL: School district, union fight over the pot of gold

Can money — oodles and oodles of money — buy happiness? Not in the Clark County School District.

With a school year fast approaching, district administration and the local teachers union are locked in an acrimonious contract battle that involves talk of a teacher walkout. At the center of the dispute is a big pile of cash and a clash between Superintendent Jesus Jara and Clark County Education Association Executive Director John Vellardita.

Gov. Joe Lombardo recently signed a budget bill that increases public education spending by a whopping $2 billion over the two-year budget cycle, most of which will go to population-rich Southern Nevada. The district was also the beneficiary of almost $800 million in federal pandemic money.

In short, the district — which has seen declining enrollment in recent years — has more money than it has ever had. But as this dispute neatly highlights, it’s never enough and never will be.

The union has a number of objectives, but the primary goal is to gobble up the lion’s share of the new money in the form of significant teacher salary increases over the next two years. Mr. Jara says such generosity would put the district in a financial hole. He instead seeks to revamp the salary schedule, among other things.

As usual, there’s precious little talk about improving academic performance in a district that struggles to teach too many children even rudimentary skills — and has the test scores to prove it. What will the taxpayers get in return for their increased contributions? Asking such an impertinent question usually results in an uncomfortable silence from the education establishment and its legislative apologists.

The rhetoric got more heated this week when district officials announced they had filed a legal action in District Court to prevent a potential strike. The move comes just days after Mr. Vellardita said that, if no deal is in place by Aug. 26, “our organization and our members will be taking a vote to engage in work actions.”

Mr. Jara carries plenty of baggage — he has pushed to dumb-down grading policies in the name of “equity” and implemented a “restorative justice” plan that led to increased school violence, including attacks on teachers — but he’s on firm footing here. It is illegal for public-sector unions to strike in Nevada. To do so would be a betrayal of the public trust and impose an unnecessary disruption on thousands of families and students. And there’s no guarantee that taxpayers will side with the union given the district’s dismal student outcomes.

This district has enough problems. Mr. Vellardita and Mr. Jara must rise above their differences and work out an agreement which recognizes that, thanks to this new pot of gold, taxpayer tolerance for the district’s perpetual mediocrity will eventually evaporate.