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Time for Nevada parents to stand up and demand adequate education funding

It appears that all the money from marijuana sales appears to be going up in smoke. Since the legalization of marijuana in Nevada, the Clark County School District has not benefited financially from pot sales as much as previously promised. The money that was supposed to support K-12 education has not resulted in increased funding to education. The taxes from the millions collected is doing nothing to help the district with the $60 million deficit.

The district receives about $5,500 per student from the state’s budget. I am not advocating the problems in the district are going to be solved by throwing money at the problems. I am saying the per-pupil amount needs to be increased in addition to more oversight of the budget, school performance reviews and making sure that benchmarks are being met.

This lack of investment in students is resulting in our students not getting the education they deserve. Students are sitting in overcrowded classrooms with underpaid teachers. Students are not being provided with the resources to be able to compete in reading, writing and math. Many of these students need additional services and resources that are not provided by the schools.

As Nevada continues to diversify from a hospitality economy to a technological economy, we need to be pressuring our elected officials to make education funding a priority. Parents, teachers and community members need to be speaking to our elected officials now. We need to identify candidates who support increased funding for students.

We must start working now to educate our community to ensure that our elected leaders, educators, community leaders and stakeholders are working together toward making sure that the money collected in taxes is going to our students to ensure them the world-class education they deserve.

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