Oppose SB439: Fix 543
SB439: NOT THE FIX NEVADA NEEDS
Two years ago, SB543 was developed behind closed doors, wasn’t introduced until the 99th day of the session, and had but a single public hearing with the bill passing minutes before Sine Die. Today (May 10, 2021), on the 99th day of this session, SB439 was introduced with less fanfare, but it was also developed behind closed doors without even a preview of its content.
WHY IS SB543 BROKEN?
Since the introduction of SB543 two years ago, NSEA has expressed policy concerns at every opportunity—the lack of educator voice; no new revenue; watering down Zoom and Victory schools; freezing and squeezing school district budgets; a giveaway to charter schools; and undoing the rules of collective bargaining.
Nevada ranks 48th among states in education funding, yet the new funding plan includes no new funding. While the Funding Commission has recommended a 10-year plan for Nevada to increase education funding by $2B per year, SB439 completely ignores these recommendations. Meanwhile SB439 further moves Nevada backward by proposing to strike language in the NRS that references merit salary increases and cost of living adjustments.
HOW DO WE FIX 543?
If the Legislature is intent on moving forward with the implementation of the new funding formula, NSEA recommends making three changes to ensure the new plan does significantly less harm to Nevada’s students and educators.
First, grandfather existing Zoom and Victory Schools, located in Nevada’s poorest communities, serving the highest percentage of at-risk students, and proven models of education equity. With the shift away from a school-based approach, Zoom and Victory schools will have their budgets reduced and lose significant momentum on school climate and culture, jeopardizing gains made for students in our most impacted schools and communities.
Second, hold districts truly harmless by using the greater of 2020 total budget or per pupil amount by district, adjusted by the inflationary costs of doing business. Modeling the new funding plan showed most districts would end up with frozen budgets for years. This means growing districts like Nye or Storey County could have a serious reduction in their per-pupil funding level. Also, without inflationary increases to revenues, districts under hold harmless would have to shift funds away from classrooms to cover increasing fixed costs like utilities, healthcare, and step increases.
Finally, remove anti-union language that increases the district ending fund balance walled off from collective bargaining to 16.6%, to preserve the collective bargaining process. One of the most serious unintended consequences of SB543 was the impact this provision would have when coupled with another provision sweeping district ending fund balance over 16.6%. Taken together, education unions would be unable to negotiate over any item with a cost, like salaries and benefits and proposals for worker and school safety. This would adversely impact our educator shortage and would jeopardize labor peace in Nevada.
