School district priorities

The Legislature appears to have settled on the state's public schools budget for 2009-11, and county districts have some tough choices to make.

That, in itself, isn't a bad thing. Decisions on each school district's priorities should be made locally, with significant input from taxpaying parents and businesses. Debates on whether to preserve field trips and certain elective programs in Las Vegas shouldn't unfold across the state, in Carson City. We elect school board trustees for many reasons, and this is a big one.

For Nevada educators, the funding picture is far better than what was expected a few months ago. Lawmakers have restored many of the cuts Gov. Jim Gibbons proposed in his initial budget, and doing so will qualify the schools spending plan for $162 million in debt-financed federal "stimulus" funding.

Instead of having a roughly $2.3 billion two-year budget, as proposed by Gov. Gibbons, the state's K-12 system will have more than $2.7 billion to spend. Almost three-quarters of that amount will flow to Clark County.

But school districts were looking for something closer to $3 billion, on the low side. That's because last summer they recklessly proceeded with a 4 percent across-the-board pay raise for all employees, even though superintendents and trustees were claiming that their budgets had already been bled dry.

Including annual "step" pay raises, most teachers, administrators and support workers last year received pay raises of between 8 and 9 percent despite economic conditions that warned of much darker days ahead.

The Legislature's budget agreement provides more than enough money for most public school programs, even those created just a few years ago. There's enough money for some full-day kindergarten programs, for remedial classes, for extracurricular activities and popular high school electives.

But there's not enough money to preserve all those programs and last year's 4 percent pay raise.

So what will the Clark County School Board do to balance its budget? The powerful local teachers union seems to know.

"Our members don't want salary cuts, and in our discussions with the school district, they have agreed to honor their obligations under the current contract," said Clark County Education Association President Ruben Murillo.

That means no pay cuts -- and another round of pay raises come July 1.

By extension, that also means gutting our schools of everything that remotely relates to individual needs and interests. Goodbye to libraries (and librarians) and theater and sports. Goodbye to physical education and tutoring and clubs. Goodbye to gifted and talented education and choir. So long, art. Nice knowing you, music, band and orchestra.

These are the decisions that will be made by all the people who've claimed their first priority was always "the children." They're throwing the life boats into the sea and declaring teachers and administrators will go first, and kids will fight for whatever room is left.

Salary and benefit reductions are terrible hardships to impose on any employee. But such steps have been taken by countless companies across the valley and across the country. And it's safe to say that most of those businesses weren't able to hand out 8 to 9 percent pay raises last year, in the first place.

The Clark County School Board will have public hearings related to the 2009-11 budget before formally adopting it. Trustees have said they can't possibly make more cuts, but they will. And their decisions will tell taxpayers a great deal about the state's true priorities -- and whether their concerns matter a whit.