On Thursday, June 21st. Fund Our Future submitted public comment to the Interim Legislative Education Committee requesting that they consider revamping the funding formula, increasing education funds and ensure new education tax dollars like Marijuana and Room Tax dollars supplement and don't supplant. Read the proposal below. 

Amid concerns of overcrowding, ongoing public mistrust and the loss of school staffers, the Clark County School Board approved a final budget for the 2018-19 school year Monday that mended a $68 million deficitannounced this month.
The latest $2.4 billion budget was adjusted to address the shortfall, caused primarily by two arbitration decisions over teacher salaries that the district recently lost.
The district is fighting one arbitration loss over the 2017-18 teachers contract in court. Meanwhile, district schools cut $47 million from their individual budgets, with $132 per student cut in elementary schools, $153 in middle schools and $184 in high schools.

Read more: Las Vegas Review-Journal

 
Las Vegas - Nevada has the largest student-to-teacher ratio in the nation for the second year in a row, according to the 2018 National Education Association Rankings and Statistics(NEA).

With 25.86 average students per teacher (some classrooms more than twice as large) Nevada has the largest classrooms in the nation, followed by Arizona and Utah. Based on past reports from the NEA, the average class size in Nevada has increased by seven students in just three years straining the workload of our educators. 
 
“With such large class sizes and uncertainty about pay raises and resources it’s no wonder our teachers are so stressed,” said Michelle Booth, Communications Director at Educate Nevada Now. “We keep saying we care about our students and teachers but statistics like this say otherwise.” 
 
The report comes on the heels of the Clark County School District announcing budget cuts that will likely lead to even larger class sizes. 
 
In addition, when accounting for salary per classroom per pupil, Nevada teachers are the third-worst paid in the nation. 
 
Other rankings of note from the report: 

• Nevada ranks 42nd in percentage of revenue the education fund gets from state government (37 percent). 
• Nevada ranks 48th in per-pupil funding at $8,965.

In line with the national wave of educators demanding decent salaries and proper resources for their students and classrooms, the Fund Our Future Nevada coalition demands Legislators do right by Nevada’s students and educators and increase funding for K-12 schools. 
 
“The State recently dedicated additional dollars for education, but those funds were restricted and could not be used for expenses like teacher salaries. It’s time we fund the base so that our schools can keep up with operating expenses and focus on student achievement,” said Caryne Shea, Vice President of HOPE For Nevada
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Teachers, parents, and students are you aware of any extremely large class sizes? Tell us about it, we want to hear your stories.  Email us at: educatenevadanow@gmail.com
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In light of recent educator protests in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, and Kentucky, coupled with the funding challenges for our own teachers, Fund Our Future Nevada is calling on its legislators to restore the Room Tax revenue that rightfully belongs to our educators.
 “Our teachers and gaming leaders advocated for this new tax to help retain and recruit teachers, but thanks to our legislators, this new tax has never directly benefited our teachers,” said Amanda Morgan, Legal Director at Education Nevada Now. Read More: 

​It’s hard to believe it’s been one month since the launch of the Fund Our Future Nevada coalition to advocate on behalf of our students and their need for better funded public schools.

Since then we’ve had a lot of traction on our website, FundOurFutureNV.com, several members of the community have signed the pledge for support and we’ve received many inquiries about our campaign and interest in being a part of the coalition. We want to thank you for taking the pledge to support increased funding. If you signed up to receive the newsletter we will update you periodically on our efforts, on new and relevant information and education funding proposals. For the first newsletter we want to elaborate on our initial proposals.

It’s hard to believe it’s been one month since the launch of the Fund Our Future Nevada coalition to advocate on behalf of our students and their need for better funded public schools.

Since then we’ve had a lot of traction on our website, FundOurFutureNV.com, several members of the community have signed the pledge for support and we’ve received many inquiries about our campaign and interest in being a part of the coalition. We want to thank you for taking the pledge to support increased funding. If you signed up to receive the newsletter we will update you periodically on our efforts, on new and relevant information and education funding proposals.
For the first newsletter we want to elaborate on our initial proposals. Read More: 

There's a catch-22 scenario working against student achievement at Nevada schools that receive an extra $1200 per eligible student via Senate Bill 178.
 SB178 (2017) is a bill that established support for underperforming English Learners (ELs) and/or students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch (FRL), who are performing in the lowest quartile of student achievement, and who are not currently enrolled in a ZOOM or Victory school.
 While the announcement of new SB178 schools came as a great help to the schools that were selected, it left the 52 unrenewed schools with a new burden to figure out a way to retain programs and staff that had been hired with the new funds. Read More: 

Click here Las Vegas - Once again Nevada was given an “F” in school finance proving it ranks among the most unfair to students according to the 2018 National Report Card released this week by the Education Law Center and Rutgers School of Education.

"We continue to rank in the bottom for K-12 funding while our students and teachers continue to be asked to go for so long with so little. It’s no wonder we are not performing well academically", said Jenn Blackhurst, president of HOPE for Nevada. "This is why we started the Fund Our Future coalition, to demonstrate that Nevada's communities are united in an effort to stop shortchanging our students and provide them with the resources they deserve."

Earlier this month, HOPE for Nevada, in partnership with Educate Nevada Now and teachers, students and education advocates throughout the entire state launched the Fund Our Future Nevada coalition to campaign for increased funds for Nevada’s K-12 schools.

Other notable findings from the report highlight Nevada’s failure to fund in categories that include fiscal effort, funding distribution and funding levels.

• Nevada was ranked among the most regressive states when it comes to funding distribution for students in high poverty areas. Nevada students in high poverty areas received less than 75 cents for every dollar received by their low-poverty counterparts.
  

• When it comes to fiscal effort, Nevada was one of a handful of states that scored poorly on both measures of local and state spending on education in relation to a state’s ability to generate revenue. The measures were based on the state’s economic productivity and aggregate personal income.
  

• Nevada ranked toward the bottom in the Level of Funding category with the 8th lowest funding level at $7,485, per the report.
  

• Nevada was one of only four states that earned an “F” and scored poorly on all measures except coverage.
  

The National Report Card uses data from the 2015 Census fiscal survey, the most recent available.

“Nevada has been bouncing back successfully since the recession in job growth, real estate, tourism and gross domestic product, it’s time we shift our focus on ensuring the same level of progress for our students,” said Sylvia Lazos, policy director for Educate Nevada Now (powered by The Rogers Foundation).

Nevada did perform well in the Coverage category which measures the share of school-aged children enrolled in public schools compared to private schools.

“The NRC released today is a sobering reminder of why unfair school funding is the most significant obstacle to improving outcomes for our nation’s public school students,” said David Sciarra, Education Law Center Executive Director and report co-author in a press release. “The stark reality is most states still fund their public schools based on pure politics, not on the cost of delivering quality education to all students.”

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Overcrowded classrooms. Too few teachers. Aging education materials. Chronic budget cuts. And poor test scores.
As the drumbeat to better fund public education continues in Nevada, those are the hallmarks of the seemingly never-ending conversation. And over the coming months, it’s poised to get even louder. Last week, a group of parents, teachers, students and education partners announced the launch of the Fund Our Future Nevada coalition, which hopes to build momentum for the K-12 funding reforms it deems necessary.
Read more in The Nevada Independent.