Angie Sullivan teaches in a high-poverty elementary school in Clark County, Nevada.
She sent this letter, pleading for common sense, to every member of the Legislature.
I love Angie for standing up and speaking out.
She wrote:
I’m reviewing the #NVLeg bill drafts.
There are already 69 education related requests.
Have to be honest.
If you have not consulted with Teachers, worked with CCEA, or done some homework – you could be costing the state and all sorts of folks – a lot of money.
Folks who have to implement educational ideas should be asked about them.
“Great ideas” NEED a money line when they become legislative language.
And a data line. Someone needs to be paid to “track” the data and implementation too.
Sorry folks.
Bad news: Staff, supplies, time all cost money.
You are expensive thinkers.
You are not responsible payers.
Be responsible.
Be real about the cost.
The professional skill, the text or materials, and the professional time to plan and implement. It all costs. Demanding we work for free to implement your great ideas – has got to stop. You need to pay folks. We love you all. No means No. It is abusive and not responsible how folks treat Nevada Teachers.
Pay your bills first now. Make sure basic needs are met. The money goes fast.
If you put something on the plate, you need to take something off. Our plates are full. Do not load us up and drown us.
Or you need to pay for additional staff and new supplies and the hours it takes for your “great ideas” to be put into curriculum.
By the way – I usually LOVE those ideas.
I HATE the lack of appetite for raising money to pay for those ideas.
Nevada Legislators are notorious bipartisan spend-thrifts.
While also being sneaky about unfunded mandates – also known as – do it without money.
Your ideas will NOT magically happen for free on a state-wide level. There are no magic wands. The fairy has left the building. Nobody enjoys working for free. I am looking at all of you old-timers who should know better. You know who you are.
No one except for a few courageous souls have shown real Nevada leadership in getting real education money to the classroom level. That is what you should all focus on as a Bipartisan Southern Caucus. That would make a real difference. We are shorted. Someone needs to work on fixing that.
Education Bills need a Money line. They cost.
Education Bills need a Data line. We need to prove they did what they were supposed to do and someone should be paid to track it. Regular reports should be given to see if it worked.
I spoke to some lovely folks the other day who wanted to import some fantastic ideas from Chicago. When I told them they needed a money line and a data line – they told me they did not. Not something anyone should say to me. Ever.
Let me be frank.
The Nevada Legislature funds at the bottom. The Southern Caucus gets routinely shorted. Therefore…
There is zero extra in the inner city Vegas city classroom. We are running in the negative. Subsidizing classrooms by demanding teachers pay from our own teacher paychecks is routine.
You want a civics program, a drug education program, or a charter school for one student in Eureka- you need to cost that out. And your specific community needs to pay for it. Or raise taxes from the community with that specific need. Ask your neighborhood school if they really need your great idea. Go to your school SOT and ask them if they need that – or if they actually need something else desperately.
Handing me a bunch of expensive stuff I cannot use when my students are in such dire straits is heartbreaking.
I can tell by looking at these BDRs. Some folks are really off-target for my community in East Las Vegas. Way off target for my community soaked in poverty and need. It is shocking how off target.
Just like any budget.
There are things we NEED like:
Fully licensed teacher in every classroom – cost $60 million. (Training for severely underprepared Teachers, vacancies, recruitment, pipeline, retention efforts)
School safety – cost $150 million. (School police, psychologists, social workers, and counselors -as well as school training and procedure education) ** does not include building upgrades like gates and locks and security systems.
Updated reading, math, science consumables/textbooks/General supplies – $235 million ($300,000 each year for 349 schools). **This does not include other programs which also need supplies
Read by Three tutoring – (35,000 students x $2,000) $70 million each year or $140 million
Updated district-wide wifi broad band and hardware/software – $200 million ($500,000 x 349 schools)
Adding to Weighted Funding to meet needs of students with language learning, poverty or special education needs costs – $2 billion. Many of our students require sigificant additional support to learn due to circumstances beyond their control. Weighted funding needs to be increased each year and targeted to address the severe need.
The money goes fast when you focus on the basics.
There are things we want – like a photo in the paper with 12 cute kids we helped plant a garden. Love gardens. If you ask me what I need – it is not a garden right now. And I love gardens. I love ours. But I need a box or paper and a copier that works.
Frankly, I want it all. I know it is important.
Love gardens, art, civics, drug education, Native American education, financial planning education, fingerprinting everyone in the school, diversity training, meeting every child’s personal or “choice” needs. Love Love Love. I wish we could have every important thing. I would pull from my own pocket for all those ideas.
But most of those items are “luxury spending” compared to our significant needs.
We need to stay focused on the huge basic NEED.
Taking from thousands of disadvantaged students to pay for your personal pet projects or something that benefits only one small group – has got to stop.
Some kids do not have a classroom with a book and a teacher.
All students need adequate access first.
And unfunded mandates have put us in the hole. For example: Demanding we test but never updating our computer systems.
Folks wonder why we fail when the tests do not run on old systems?
Common sense.
The lights have to come on, supplies need to be onhand, equipment/technology needs to be adequate, and a teacher needs to stand in every classroom. When you do not make basics a priority – the kids suffer.
Pay the bills first.
Previous great legislation is not even implemented anymore because there is no money. Empowerment legislation money is where? Hiding behind a “new and shinier” teacher leadership ideas? That is not responsible either. Best practice no longer funded should be revisited. Not an exciting job but tried and true.
Folks are new and excited.
I want everyone to have a great session.
Listen up: We need money to pay for your ideas.
And your ideas have to be authentic and research based and educational best practice.
Be responsible.
Please call CCEA. 702-733-3063 They have important priority ideas and bills we really need to make sure every child has access and opportunity.
The Teacher,
Angie
______________
[Here are a list of the 69 education-related bills that have been filed.]
BDR 34-10
Makes various changes relating to education.
Requested by Senator Harris on 8/11/2017
BDR 34-13
Revises provisions relating to education.
Requested by Senator Harris on 8/11/2017
BDR 14
Revises provisions relating to education.
Requested by Senator Gansert on 8/22/2017
BDR 34-23
Revises provisions governing school safety.
Requested by Assemblywoman Miller on 10/11/2017
BDR 33
Establishes in statute the Nevada Commission on Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Requested by Assemblyman Ohrenschall on 2/23/2018
BDR 15-41
Revises provisions governing school safety.
Requested by Assemblyman Wheeler on 3/5/2018
BDR 57-43
Requires health insurers to provide coverage for certain equipment for children with disabilities.
Requested by Senator Spearman on 3/19/2018
BDR 17-62
Revises provisions relating to the Nevada Youth Legislature.
Requested by Senator Woodhouse on 5/16/2018
BDR 77
Establishes a school in Nevada for children who are blind, deaf or hard of hearing.
Requested by Senator Spearman on 5/17/2018
BDR 34-82
Revises provisions governing charter schools.
Requested by Assemblywoman Titus on 6/4/2018
BDR 93
Revises provisions governing read by grade 3 in public schools.
Requested by Assemblyman Thompson on 6/8/2018
BDR 105
Revises provisions governing safe and respectful learning environments in public schools.
Requested by Assemblyman Carrillo on 6/17/2018
BDR S-107
Makes an appropriation for educational leadership training programs.
Requested by Senate Committee on Finance on 6/18/2018
BDR 15-119
Revises provisions governing possession and storage of firearms.
Requested by Assemblyman Fumo on 6/22/2018
BDR 122
Makes various education reforms.
Requested by Assemblyman Edwards on 6/22/2018
BDR 43-128
Revises provisions governing safety of children.
Requested by Assemblywoman Spiegel on 6/22/2018
BDR 34-132
Requires that instruction in the founding principles of American government be specifically included in public schools.
Requested by Assemblyman Wheeler on 6/28/2018
BDR 133
Revises provisions relating to cannabis.
Requested by Senator Cancela on 6/27/2018
BDR 14-142
Revises provisions governing certain juvenile offenders.
Requested by Assemblyman Hambrick on 6/29/2018
BDR 5-143
Revises provisions governing criminal procedures for certain juvenile offenders who are also victims of crime.
Requested by Assemblyman Hambrick on 6/29/2018
BDR S-144
Makes appropriations for incentives for employing teachers at Title I and underperforming schools.
Requested by Assemblyman Frierson on 7/1/2018
BDR 34-156
Revises provisions relating to the board of trustees of certain school districts.
Requested by Senator Kieckhefer on 7/10/2018
BDR 5-165
Revises provisions relating to school safety.
Requested by Senate Minority Leader on 7/20/2018
BDR 167
Makes various changes to improve school safety.
Requested by Senator Gansert , Assemblywoman Tolles on 7/9/2018
BDR 54-180
Revises provisions relating to the medical use of marijuana or industrial hemp.
Requested by Senator Spearman on 7/23/2018
BDR 34-243
Revises provisions relating to education funding.
Requested by Senator Kieckhefer on 7/24/2018
BDR 247
Makes certain changes relating to education.
Requested by Senator Gansert on 7/24/2018
BDR 23-251
Revises provisions relating to collective bargaining.
Requested by Assemblyman Wheeler on 7/25/2018
BDR 19-252
Designates English as the official common language of the State of Nevada.
Requested by Assemblyman McArthur on 7/25/2018
BDR 34-262
Eliminates certain training required of teachers.
Requested by Senator Hardy on 7/30/2018
BDR 263
Makes certain changes relating to education, including increasing the salary for all members of the board of trustees of each school district, requiring the school board districts in certain counties to have the same geographic boundaries as the county commission districts, and authorizing public schools, including charter schools, to accept pupils on a part-time basis.
Requested by Senator Segerblom on 7/30/2018
BDR 271
Makes certain changes relating to marijuana, including revising provisions governing the transferability of medical marijuana establishment registration certificates, providing for dual licensing of medical and recreational marijuana facilities, providing for state certification of marijuana products sold in Nevada, appropriating $1 million to study the feasibility of creating a marijuana stock exchange in Las Vegas, appropriating $1 million from the existing 10% excise tax on marijuana for medical marijuana research grants to be given out by the Department of Health and Human Services, authorizing local governments to issue offsite marijuana licenses to marijuana dispensary owners to allow for tasting and sale of marijuana products in certain settings such as coffee shops, revising state laws concerning driving while under the influence of marijuana to provide a rebuttable presumption when a person’s blood level is over the legal limit, authorizing District Attorneys to expunge misdemeanor convictions relating to marijuana from a person’s criminal record, and prohibiting employers, under certain circumstances, from testing for marijuana pre-employment or without probable cause post-employment.
Requested by Senate Committee on Judiciary on 7/30/2018
BDR R-279
AJR: Urges Congress to require the United States Census Bureau to ensure a fair 2020 national census.
Requested by Assemblyman Thompson on 7/31/2018
BDR 281
Revises provisions relating to school safety.
Requested by Senator Hammond on 7/31/2018
BDR 282
Makes certain changes relating to school safety.
Requested by Senator Hammond on 7/31/2018
BDR 34-283
Creates the Program to Develop Leadership Skills for Public School Pupils.
Requested by Senator Hammond on 7/31/2018
BDR 34-285
Revises provisions relating to education savings accounts and education funding.
Requested by Senator Hammond on 7/31/2018
BDR 289
Revises provisions governing the care of children by volunteer families.
Requested by Assemblyman Frierson on 7/31/2018
BDR 54-294
Establishes conditions for the performance of certain surgical procedures.
Requested by Senator Parks on 7/31/2018
BDR 305
Revises provisions governing early childhood education.
Requested by Assemblywoman Monroe-Moreno on 8/1/2018
BDR 34-308
Revises provisions relating to Nevada Promise Scholarships.
Requested by Senator Denis on 8/1/2018
BDR 309
Revises provisions relating to data privacy.
Requested by Senator Denis on 8/1/2018
BDR 310
Revises provisions relating to education.
Requested by Senator Denis on 8/1/2018
BDR 43-320
Provides for the issuance of a specialty license plate memorializing the historic Westside “Moulin Rouge” to assist with scholarships for low-income high school graduates interested in pursuing the arts.
Requested by Assemblyman McCurdy on 8/1/2018
BDR 321
Revises provisions governing education.
Requested by Assemblywoman Diaz on 8/1/2018
BDR 323
Revises provisions governing taxation.
Requested by Assemblywoman Diaz on 8/1/2018
BDR 324
Makes various changes relating to education.
Requested by Assemblywoman Diaz on 8/1/2018
BDR 368
Makes an appropriation for educational programs relating to history, law and civics.
Requested by Senator Woodhouse on 8/2/2018
BDR 34-383
Revises the eligibility requirements for the Governor Guinn Millennium Scholarship Program.
Requested by Committee to Conduct a Study Concerning the Cost and Affordability of Higher Education (A.B. 202, 2017) on 6/4/2018
BDR 34-384
Creates a state-funded grant program for university students.
Requested by Committee to Conduct a Study Concerning the Cost and Affordability of Higher Education (A.B. 202, 2017) on 6/4/2018
BDR 34-385
Revises the eligibility requirements for the Silver State Opportunity Grant.
Requested by Committee to Conduct a Study Concerning the Cost and Affordability of Higher Education (A.B. 202, 2017) on 6/4/2018
BDR 34-386
Establishes a long-term stakeholder group to develop a statewide vision and implementation plan for Nevada’s educational system.
Requested by Legislative Committee on Education (NRS 218E.605) on 8/9/2018
BDR 34-387
Revises provisions relating to review of the equity allocation model used to calculate a basic support guarantee for each school district.
Requested by Legislative Committee on Education (NRS 218E.605) on 8/9/2018
BDR 34-388
Revises provisions relating to the licensure and employment of veterans, military personnel and their spouses in Nevada’s public schools.
Requested by Legislative Committee on Education (NRS 218E.605) on 8/9/2018
BDR 34-389
Creates a task force to study the creation of a tiered career pathway for educators.
Requested by Legislative Committee on Education (NRS 218E.605) on 8/9/2018
BDR 34-390
Revises provisions relating to school discipline.
Requested by Legislative Committee on Education (NRS 218E.605) on 8/9/2018
BDR 34-391
Authorizes variable-length renewal of charter contracts.
Requested by Legislative Committee on Education (NRS 218E.605) on 8/9/2018
BDR 34-392
Provides for the separate regulation of online charter schools.
Requested by Legislative Committee on Education (NRS 218E.605) on 8/9/2018
BDR 34-393
Extends the English Mastery Council and expands the duties of the Council.
Requested by Legislative Committee on Education (NRS 218E.605) on 8/9/2018
BDR 34-394
Provides flexibility to school districts to award credit for coursework completed by pupils experiencing homelessness or in foster care.
Requested by Legislative Committee on Education (NRS 218E.605) on 8/9/2018
BDR 34-397
Revises provisions relating to the education of certain children from Nevada who are patients or residents of certain hospitals or facilities located in another state.
Requested by Senate Committee on Finance on 8/14/2018
BDR 31-398 – SB26
https://www.leg.state.nv.us/App/NELIS/REL/80th2019/Bill/5909/Overview
Revises provisions governing school finance administration.
Requested by Clark County School District on 8/14/2018
Summary:
Revises provisions governing school financial administration. (BDR 31-398)
Title:
AN ACT relating to school districts; excluding certain money from collective bargaining negotiations and from consideration in determining the ability of a school district to pay compensation and monetary benefits; and providing other matters properly relating thereto.
Introduction Date:
Friday, November 16, 2018
Fiscal Notes:
Effect on Local Government: No.
Effect on the State: No.
Digest:
Existing law requires each local government employer to engage in collective bargaining with the recognized employee organization, if any, for each appropriate bargaining unit among its employees. (NRS 288.150) Existing law also establishes a process for the resolution of an impasse in collective bargaining through fact-finding, arbitration or both, but imposes limitations on the money that a fact finder or arbitrator may consider in determining the financial ability of a local government employer to pay compensation or monetary benefits. (NRS 288.200, 288.215, 288.217, 354.6241) Under existing law, for certain governmental funds of a local government other than a school district, a budgeted ending fund balance of not more than 25 percent of the total budgeted expenditures, less capital outlay, is not subject to negotiations and cannot be considered by a fact finder or arbitrator in determining the ability of the local government to pay compensation or monetary benefits. (NRS 354.6241) This bill establishes that for a school district, an ending fund balance of not more than 8.3 percent of the total budgeted expenditures, less capital outlay, is not subject to negotiations and cannot be considered by a fact finder or arbitrator in determining the ability of the school district to pay compensation or monetary benefits.
Primary Sponsor
Senate Committee on Government Affairs
BDR 23-405
Revises provisions relating to collective bargaining.
Requested by Senator Atkinson on 8/23/2018
BDR 34-415 – SB57
https://www.leg.state.nv.us/App/NELIS/REL/80th201
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Any meaningful educational relationship must start with needs. Otherwise, we are no better than a computer. Some of those needs may be beyond the scope of the classroom so we have to bridge that gap by getting students help with physical or social-emotional needs. We know that a hungry child cannot learn, and a homeless child needs support beyond academics. Programs that consider the needs of the whole child are more likely to have a greater impact when primary needs are addressed first.
“You want a civics program, a drug education program, or a charter school for one student in Eureka- you need to cost that out. And your specific community needs to pay for it. Or raise taxes from the community with that specific need. Ask your neighborhood school if they really need your great idea. Go to your school SOT and ask them if they need that – or if they actually need something else desperately.”
I think they do this because it’s easy to dump everything on public schools. It means they don’t have to address anything outside of public schools and they can say they solved the problem.
You can actually look around a public school and see the work of the various ed reform factions- each and every one of them gets their particular favorite program or policy and they just stack them endlessly.
“If you put something on the plate, you need to take something off. Our plates are full. Do not load us up and drown us.”
Amen. Public schools can’t solve all the problems in the United States and it is a cowardly dodge when politicians insist they can. There are trade-offs. There are costs to ed reform experiments. There is downside risk.
If ed reformers told the truth, if they told the public that the public probably can’t have a charter school uniquely suited to each student and a voucher program for people who prefer private schools AND a comprehensive “general education” public system, that people will have to CHOOSE, I would accept that.
But they know that would be politically problematic, so they continue to insist that there can be a solid public system alongside the two privatized systems they prefer, and that’s not true. There will be sacrifices for choice. The one and only question is whether ALL of those sacrifices will fall on kids in existing public schools. Ed reform had decided they will. I object.
It is not true to claim they can eradicate the public system with no downside risk and no sacrifice and no compromise. That’s a fairy tale. If you want a system of specialized schools YOU WILL LOSE comprehensive general education schools because you can’t have both.
Ed reform says everyone can have everything. Adults should know better. They have NO IDEA how this privatization scheme will shake out and they should admit that. It is entirely possible that the privatized system will be lower quality and less equitable than they system they are recklessly discarding. It is almost inevitable that students in public schools will bear the cost of these experiments while they transition to a privatized system. They need to admit that to public school families.
Here’s a typical happy-talk ed reform story, this one is being promoted and marketed by the US Department of Education:
“Sells and the district superintendents worked with the Kentucky General Assembly and the Kentucky Department of Education to obtain the program flexibility to start a new school. They asked students what the students would change about their high-school experience; the answer was more-practical, hands-on experiences. In response, Sells and the districts discarded the traditional model of high school and started the iLEAD Academy as a stand-alone school and not as part of any one district. “We have a board that is constituted of the five rural district superintendents,” Sells explained. “And each district contributes $95,000 a year to the operation of the school.”
No mention, none whatsoever, on the costs and risks to the existing system of the new school.
Maybe it’s worth it! Maybe they needed a new STEM school and they can fragment the public system without doing real damage to the existing schools, but that needs to be discussed! Otherwise this is another fairy tale. Cost/benefit. Who benefits and who pays the cost. These experiments aren’t “free”. Pulling funding from existing public schools to start a new school involves trade offs. Ignoring that doesn’t make it go away.
When they flooded Toledo Ohio with charter schools and then half of them closed in 5 years that COST something. It wasn’t a wash. The public paid for that experiment.
There is never ANY MENTION of this in ed reform. That’s a fantasy. They all pride themselves on modeling public schools “on the private sector” but no one in the private sector does this- no one in the private sector claims they can launch a very expensive experiment and then not PAY for it!
They pretend opening and closing these schools is free. It’s not. They don’t break even. It costs.
and heaven forbid they should be held responsible for the truly devastating COST paid by the kids when their schools are closed, opened, closed, opened…
“…and the professional time to plan and implement. It all costs. Demanding we work for free to implement your great ideas – has got to stop. ”
Bravo! The balancing of the budget on the backs of those whose efforts are made paltry by possibility has rendered us in an impossible position. We are starting to see teaching positions unfilled for over a year. We are seeing the reduction of education students in universities. All because no sensible young people would go into a field that paid poorly for massive effort.
All the money spent to prove students are not learning by giving high stakes tests could have been used to create more teaching positions that would have been helpful. Apparently, making money for a few people is more important than providing education for the many.
As a sped teacher, I am just tired of my district wasting money. Take the garden idea. About 7 years ago, my school jumped into it enthusiastically, using the existing Parks and Rec greenhouse, near the road as a starting point. They brought in a professional, not sure from where, who booted out the Parks and Rec man who had done this community garden for years; they built garden plots, benches, a flower garden, etc., using mostly a select few 4th and 5th graders. I kept trying to get him to bring my sped kids out to work in the garden, and that never happened.
Money in. Program dropped, at least at my school.
So jump to today, all the plots, benches and flower gardens are gone. Students do not go to the greenhouse. The current principal doesn’t apparently care. The greenhouse had some updating, probably by Parks and Rec. The school has no connection. And when we did, the students weren’t allowed to cook it at school.
Money out.
Or what about the Accelerated Reader program at my school where they trained the teachers, put second graders on it for a year, bought supplies for the media specialist, and then dropped it. Money in, money out.
Or the iPad program. Here’s an iPad……oh, we forgot to tell you: buy your own apps. Oh, and we are pretty much a Windows district so this iPad isn’t really going to continue. Mine was stolen from classroom. I don’t get another. Every time, I look at videos that show updated classrooms, I weep.
Money in, money out. It’s amazing how we waste it and how much we depend on free handouts as well. Free Eureka math books, free fruit and veg snacks, free food to feed the kids, etc.
And how much lunch food is bagged up and thrown away. The kids don’t eat it.
Just counting my days till I can walk away from public schools disgusted with the waste.