Misleading numbers and Nevada education spending
In response to your Feb. 19 article on the “Red for Ed” rally:
The movement to increase public school funding is kicking into high gear with the Legislature now in session. Your article was all about money, with no specific reference to how additional funding will be spent to improve public school performance or the criteria that would determine the level of improvement achieved.
The article sites $5,967 as the average base spending per student. But it fails to mention there is an additional $3,408 per student for “support services” (this number from governing.com website).
Adding funding, without specifics, could mean most of the money would end up in the support services category and would not address the shortcoming in instructional funding.
I checked several websites that rank public schools by state, and none of them had Nevada in the bottom five. In fact, the 2018 U.S. News ranking put Nevada schools as No. 13 in the nation.
I encourage everyone, state legislators included, to do some independent online research on relative school funding and ranking rather than tacitly accepting numbers presented by interested parties. I am a strong proponent of quality education, but I believe providing and assessing it are complex issues that require a much more organized approach than just adding money will provide.
