More than a month into the school year, Clark County teachers are still without a contract.
Negotiations between the district and the Clark County Education Association have stalled, and Governor Joe Lombardo said he was going to help. But didn’t state lawmakers this year already agree teachers deserve a raise?
Why isn’t that happening? Why did administrators get raises, and teachers are talking about potential work actions?
More than a month into the school year, Clark County teachers still have no contract.
Negotiations between the district and the Clark County Education Association have stalled, and Governor Joe Lombardo said he would help, but didn’t state lawmakers this year already agree teachers deserve a raise?
Why isn’t that happening? Why did administrators get raises, and teachers are talking about potential work actions?
According to Nevada Current Deputy Editor April Corbin Girnus, it’s hard to tell what’s going on because negotiations are not privy to public meeting laws.
“Everybody’s released statements … but one thing to remember is that all of these negotiations are happening behind closed doors,” she said. “Both sides are telling each other, and the media, that the other side is lying outright. So, it's hard to suss through exactly what proposals are on the table.”
One aspect that may add confusion to the negotiations is the passage of a law meant to increase teacher pay across the state.
Approved by all but one lawmakers, Senate Bill 231 was meant to give school districts in Nevada $250 million in state money to increase teacher pay.
However, the district argues that funding is a one-time appropriation, making raises potentially unaffordable in the future if lawmakers decide to spend less money on K-12 education.
“The way they wrote the bill, being that it was a separate bill and not put into the K-12 funding formula, makes it a one-time [appropriation],” said Alexander Marks, a spokesman for the Nevada State Education Association, which mostly represents teachers outside of Clark County.
“This was an alert that the legislature had for months; they knew that that was the opinion of the NSEA and various superintendents. So, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the district now is saying we do believe these to be one-time.”
During a press conference last month, legislative leaders, including Democratic Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro, called that argument “ridiculous.” Arguing instead that because lawmakers control the state’s purse strings, teacher funding would always remain secure.
It’s a point the Clark County Education Association, which represents most of the teachers in the state, agrees with.
Guests: April Corbin Girnus, deputy editor, Nevada Current; Alexander Marks, director of strategy, Nevada State Education Association
