Education In The News ... Grants, Pay Raises, Tobacco Money, Too

by Johnny Gunn

The new school year is underway, oh yes, among mighty groans from students lining the hallways from Pioche to Jackpot, from Wendover to Verdi, but there are gasps of delight, almost cheering from mamas and papas from Searchlight to Gerlach. Slightly less than 400,000 of the Silver State's youth are back at it, trying to understand the concepts offered by the Three Rs.

Here's a brief rundown on what the state of education is in Nevada.

Grants For Civics Classes Coming To Silver State School Districts

A grant of $150,000 is coming Nevada's way, to be used to further the teaching of Civics in the schools around the state. Offered by the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools (http:www.civicmissionofschools.org), a Washington D.C. organization funded by the Carnegie Corporation and the James L. Knight Foundation, the grants, made available to five other states as well, have a core purpose of preparing young people to be active, informed, and concerned citizens.

Nevada coordinator of the project is Judith Simpson of Reno who says she plans to have her Campaign for Civic Mission of Schools "research the effectiveness of civics education on knowledge and attitudes, and distribute the results to all state and local officials." Simpson said in her project description, "We want to emphasize civic education, broaden professional development opportunities through training, and improve youth voter turnout."

According to Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corporation, "Today's students must experience, debate, understand, and argue about what it means to be a citizen."

There are many that believe school systems throughout the country have been lax in developing civics courses, and this campaign is designed to help turn that around. Senator Ron Jelinek of Michigan asked, "What could be more important than civic education?" Jelinek went on to say, "Active participation is a cornerstone of democracy."

Simpson said "A revived and focused civics education program in our schools will help our youth better understand the greatness of our nation." She commented that this country is a beacon for democracy in the world, and the teaching of civics is part of that foundation.

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There's A History Grant Coming To Washoe County Schools

A grant of almost one million dollars was given school officials in northern Nevada recently to enhance the teaching of American history. The grant check was presented by Congressman Jim Gibbons, R-Reno. Most of the money will be used to train teachers. This is the second time Washoe schools have received this grant.

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All Is Not Well With Silver State Schools

School systems are judged by the intellectual level of the students turned out into the big scary world we live in, and the way that's done in today's world, is by testing. Like the concept or not, that is the reality of today's education process. If your students test well, you have done your job, if not, changes will need to be made.

In figures made available by the Washoe County School District, the district as a whole is about adequate by the standards set in the No Child Left Behind Act, and improvements are called for. By the No Child Left Behind criteria, schools get designations such as High Achievement, Adequate Achievement, Needs Improvement, and Watch List. There is also a designation for On hold for Improvement.

There are 63 elementary schools in the system, and of those, 17 are rated as Needs Improvement or worse. Only one has an On Hold rating. High schools in the district, on the other hand, have a combination of dismal ratings. Of the 17 high schools in Washoe County, almost half, eight, are rated at Needs Improvement or worse.

Middle schools, there are 13 of them, are the light at the end of the tunnel for the district. Only two middle schools have ratings of Needs Improvement or worse.

Testing is supposed to be universal in its approach to subjects, and some say this isn't always the case. In Nevada, the Criterion Referenced Tests (CRT) have experienced trouble from those writing and reviewing the tests. An example of some of the CRT results from 2004.

Third Grade Overall

Nevada: 44.5 percent met or exceeded the math standards while 44.3 percent matched or bettered the reading test.

Clark County: 44.1 percent met or exceeded the math standards. 42.3 percent the reading.

Washoe County: 46 percent met or bettered the math tests and 48.7 percent the reading standards.

Eighth Grade Overall

Nevada: 47.7 in math and 49.4 in reading

Clark County: 44.4 in math, 44.2 in reading

Washoe County: 59.9 in math, and 63.8 in reading

It is rather doubtful anyone will come up with a better way of judging whether or not our students are getting a complete education than testing, but since all the students are tested the same, the results are not as exemplary as they should be.

Students leaving Nevada's schools and enrolling in higher education facilities are more often than not humiliated by having to take remedial classes in order to bring themselves, intellectually, up to college standards.

Some believe the answer to better education is simply more money while others question the curriculum used by the districts, and some even go so far as to call the testing methods biased in favor of those who actually do learn.

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Help For Silver State Teachers Supplies Offered, Donations Needed

The Clark County Education Association (http://www.ccea-nv.org/foundation.htm) is again offering a free store for teachers in the area to find supplies they might need. The Teacher's Aide store will operate through September 9 at the association headquarters, 6165 Harrison Drive, #12 in Las Vegas.

Association director John Jasonek told The Nevada Observer, "Anything businesses or individuals can donate now will be put to good use in a Clark County public classroom immediately." Jasonek went on to say, "Families and teachers are feeling the financial squeeze right now."

All teachers in the district are invited to "shop" for the free supplies. According to figures made available by CCEA, teachers often have to spend as much as $2,000 of their own money each school year.

CCEA is a non-profit organization and can be reached through their web site or by calling 702-795-2232.

In Washoe County, a similar program is conducted called "Crayons to Computers." Denise Hedrick is the head of the program and can be reached at 353-5533.

It's been estimated that classroom teachers spend in the neighborhood of $2,000 out of their own pockets during a school year because of budget constraints by school districts. These programs help alleviate some of the monetary hardship.

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High Energy Bills, Low Education Attainment

Help Is Available For Those In Need

As energy rates around the state continue to increase, families are finding themselves in the dark. Throughout the state, roughly 1,200 households each day have their power disconnected during the hot summer months and many households have to be relocated in response to unaffordable service. The children of these low-income households are the real victims whose forced mobility can negatively impact their education and subject them to unnecessary social and emotional stress. The State of Nevada has created a program entitled Nevada Energy Connection to help an under-served population pay their energy bills and retain a measure of stability.

Education is critical to the long-term welfare of the student, the economy, and the community. However, students in the state of Nevada are not sticking around long enough in one school to gain an adequate education, with transience rates averaging 33%. According to federal law under the No Child left behind Act, every Nevada school district is required to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). Last year, 13 out of 17 school districts (Washoe County is one of them) were placed on the federal watch list for failing to make AYP. In fact, 40% of Nevada’s fourth graders scored below average on a national math test. With these statistics, it is no wonder that the 2003 Development Report Card for the States gave Nevada a grade of D in Education. In terms of high school completion, Nevada ranks 49th.

Multiple studies around the nation have drawn a correlation between student mobility and poor education attainment. The highest numbers of student mobility occur in low-income families. According to the U.S. General Accounting Office, “Elementary school children who move frequently face disruption to their lives, including their schooling. And, sadly, these children are often not helped to adjust to the disruption of a new school--new children, teachers, and principal--and to make sense of the variations in curriculum between the old school and the new.” More often than not, this disruption leads to failure and higher dropout rates among school-age children and forms patterns, which could potentially follow them for the rest of their lives.

Also, school officials have reported that high numbers of mobile children adversely affect teachers and other students. To accommodate new students, teachers must struggle with determining the academic needs of the abrupt appearance of new children and must spend more time on review, which slows down the pace of instruction. Stable students thus become short-shifted in the level of instruction they receive.

In 2003, Nevada ranked 40th in terms of affordability of energy bills and this number is likely to drop in

lieu of the recent hike in energy rates. In many cases, families are uprooting their children and moving to new schools and school districts in search of better rates or just to stay a step ahead of the bill collectors.

However, the State of Nevada is currently taking steps to address the problem of unaffordable home energy bills for low-income Nevadans through an energy and weatherization assistance program entitled Nevada Energy Connection. This program helps low-income Nevadans reduce their energy bills by making payments directly to the energy company on the consumer’s behalf. The second prong of the program, the Weatherization Assistance Program helps low- income Nevadans reduce their energy bills by improving the energy efficiency of their home through added insulation, weather stripping and minor home repairs.

Last year, more than 15,000 households participated in the program, with the average household receiving $500 in energy assistance benefits. Funding for the program is provided from the LIHEAP block grant through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and from Universal Energy Charge (UEC) monies distributed through the Nevada Fund for Energy Assistance and Conservation. To qualify, applicants can call 1-866-846-2009 or visit http://www.nevadaenergyconnection.nv.gov.

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Pay Raises Included In Education Budget Planning

The state board of education is calling for a $2 billion budget to be considered during the next legislative session. The board says that includes a three percent pay raise for teachers. The budget would be for the biennium 2005-2007.

Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn is expected to announce his budget in January. It will be the last time the Nevada legislature will have to deal with a Guinn budget.

There is an initiative petition on the General Election ballot this year that calls for the legislature to deal with education funding before any other budget concern. However, even if that initiative passes, it would have to be passed again by the general electorate, two years hence, before it would become law.

The three percent pay raise is considered a cost of living increase by the board of education. The budget, as planned, would call for spending in the neighborhood of $1.4 billion dollars during the first year, and another $1.4 billion the second.

According to figures released by the board, Nevada will have more than 400,000 students enrolled when the new budget goes into effect, July 2005.

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More Tobacco Money Coming To State Education Coffers

The Attorney General's office has announced that one of the tobacco company hold outs to the Master Settlement as it's called has joined in as a participating manufacturer, and will put money into the fund that is shared by 46 of the 50 states.

According to Chief Deputy Attorney General John Albrecht, the fund will be worth about $1.7 billion over the next ten years and Nevada can look forward to about $10.4 million. There are more than 40 tobacco companies that are under court order to contribute to the fund.

The latest company to join the fund is Vibo doing business as General Tobacco, and promotes several cheapo brands of cigarettes including Bronco, GT One, Silver, and Champion.

In Nevada the money is used to fund tobacco use reduction efforts, senior citizen programs, and to help fund Nevada's Millennium Scholarship Program. A healthy increase of $463,000 has arrived in the state, a quarterly payment.

Regarding the reduction of tobacco use by underage smokers, Attorney General Brian Sandoval said the "percentage of stores that sold cigarettes and other tobacco products to minors has dropped to 8.2 percent in July." Sandoval hails "significant reductions" in underage buying of tobacco products.