Union lackeys

Lawmakers and the governor said they were near a budget deal late Saturday. Whatever the outcome, the latest special legislative has proven beyond any doubt that the Democratic majority is a wholly owned subsidiary of the state's teacher unions.

Gov. Jim Gibbons originally proposed cutting about $170 million from K-12 spending next fiscal year to close an $887 million budget gap. But Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, and Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, vowed to cut less than half that much from public schools while declaring all options -- including tax increases -- on the table.

One of the options Gov. Gibbons wants them to consider is a change in state law that would make Nevada eligible for up to $175 million in competitive federal "Race to the Top" grants, intended to reward reforms that improve student achievement.

Nevada is not eligible for those grants because state law -- passed in 2003 to curry favor with the teacher unions -- forbids school districts from using student test score data to evaluate the performance of teachers. The Clark County School District has the software to measure student progress through each classroom -- and identify its least-effective instructors -- but can't because of this idiotic statute.

So Gov. Gibbons asked lawmakers to amend that law as part of the budget-balancing solution and allow the state to apply for the grants. The bill draft removed the 15 words that made Nevada ineligible for the federal funding.

But that infuriated the teachers union. So they had 31 new words inserted to mandate that student test scores aren't the "sole criteria" in teacher evaluations and disciplinary actions.

The governor and some Senate Republicans say those 31 new words will leave the state where it is right now: ineligible for the grants. The bill passed the Senate and the Assembly on Wednesday, but Gov. Gibbons has vowed to veto it.

It's telling that Democrats who are so desperate to preserve existing spending levels, and who would never turn down a dime in "free" money from the federal government to bail out their beloved programs, are prepared to do just that to spare Nevada's worst public school teachers from a thorough examination of their own work.

We'd rather not see any federal involvement in public education. Federal money tends to lard up school district budgets, then force state taxpayers to pick up the tab when federal dollars dry up or disappear altogether. The idea that Washington can improve anything -- let alone schools thousands of miles from the nation's capital -- is folly.

But the "Race to the Top" funds hold some promise for Nevada, if only because they might relax organized labor's crushing grip on the kind of innovation and competition our schools so desperately need.

But as long as the Democrats control either house in the Legislature, that's not going to happen. The teacher unions and their lackeys in Carson City will make sure of it.