A joint session of Senate Finance and the Assembly Ways and Means committees Wednesday added more than $500 million to state spending for K-12 education in the coming biennium.
After adding $67.2 million to the pie Tuesday evening, they voted unanimously to add $207.8 million to fiscal year 2022 and $275 million to state support of schools in FY2023.
The money will flow through the newly adopted Pupil Centered Funding Plan that is replacing the more than 50-year-old Nevada Plan.
Ways and Means Chair Maggie Carlton, D-Las Vegas said no matter what lawmakers do, some will criticize it as not enough, “but the fact is we’re putting a half-billion dollars into education and most of it is going to be in the base.”
The plan will increase the statewide average per pupil amount from $7,400 to more than $9,000 in each of the coming fiscal years.
When all spending through the Pupil Centered Funding Plan is added up — including categorical funding for specific programs such as English Language Learners — K-12 will have some $4.4 billion a year in state support.
According to staff, about a third of total revenue to K-12 comes from the state. The other two-thirds comes from local sources, primarily the Local School Support Tax portion of the sales tax and property taxes dedicated to schools.
The problem is that the ability of school districts, to generate that local funding varies widely and lawmakers are still trying to figure out how to balance the potential inequities that creates.
In the plan approved Wednesday, they committed to “hold harmless” those districts that would lose revenue. That list includes more than half of Nevada’s 17 counties: Carson, Douglas, Storey, Elko, Esmeralda, Eureka, Humboldt, Lincoln and Pershing.
According to staff reports, Carson would get $71.9 million a year through the plan and Douglas $57.6 million each year. Washoe’s share would be $543.3 million but the majority of the annual cash would go to Clark County School District — $2.88 billion.
The committee decision to add more state funding to the pot was praised by teachers’ associations including the Charter School Association.
But Chris Daly of the Nevada State Education Association made it clear they still want voters to hike mining and gaming taxes to pump much more money into K-12.
