LETTER: An easy way to solving Nevada’s public school woes

To become a licensed educator, every education major studies Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The five needs and their importance are organized in a pyramid. A child’s basic physiological needs — food, water and shelter — appear at the bottom and are the most important, while at the top is self-actualization. Meaning once a person has all they need to survive, function and understand their position in the world and their community, they can enter this final portion of the hierarchy and are ready to soar. Maslow demonstrated that without meeting basic needs a child is unable to grow and learn.

It is readily apparent that Maslow’s Hierarchy is foreign to Nevada’s governor. In 2023, Gov. Joe Lombardo vetoed a bill that provided free school lunches that would have guaranteed our students’ basic physiological needs were met. Nevada’s per pupil funding remains $4,000 below the national average even though $1.3 billion is parked in the state’s Rainy Day account. Rather than allocating money to create a path for success in all Nevada’s public schools and following the recommendations of the Commission on School Funding, the governor plans to increase public school funding over the biennium by just $2.

Recently he introduced an omnibus education bill designed to pit schools and districts against each other, creating winners and losers. His plan punishes struggling schools — as if the students and their educators are purposely failing to achieve. This solution, not unlike the No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top programs, has been tried and failed. Multiple commissions have all concluded that inadequate, inconsistent and short-term funding is what keeps Nevada’s public schools from being their best. Nevada’s public school students’ success depends on this investment.