Next Up Blog

Come join us on April 26 for the second installment of our Thursday Afternoon Spring Speakers Series as Anthony Kim discusses his new book, The New School Rules: 6 Vital Practices for Thriving and Responsive Schools.

Anthony Kim is the founder and CEO of Education Elements, one of the nation’s leading personalized learning consultants.  Education Elements works with school districts large and small across the United States, building a remarkable track record of strengthening academic success in large, small, urban and rural school districts.

The event begins at 5, with a courtyard reception immediately following the discussion, at our office in downtown Las Vegas — 241 West Charleston Boulevard, behind Lola’s restaurant (Suite 150).

Be sure to get your RSVP in early by emailing events@nevadaaction.org or marking “Going” on the event’s Facebook page.

Nevada Action for School Options is thrilled to offer the Clark County education community the opening session of its Thursday Afternoon Spring Speakers Series, featuring American education reform icon Jeanne Allen along with Nevada education leader Pat Hickey, Executive Director of the Charter Schools Association of Nevada, discussing trends, developments and issues of particular importance to the education future of our community.  Please come join us at 5pm on Thursday, April 19 (Please RSVP to events[at]nevadaaction.org or by marking “going” to this event on Facebook.)

Come by sometime and spend some time with our new one-of-a-kind large wall map showing every CCSD, public charter, and nonpublic school in the Las Vegas Valley.  As we pursue our mission of advancing high-quality educational opportunities for all Nevada students, we think educators, charter school leaders and people across our community can benefit from some quality time building their understanding of where schools are, which are the most underserved neighborhoods, and how it all fits together on the map.

Has anyone else built a similar tool?  If so, please let us know, we’d love to talk about it.

Thanks to a new analysis by the Nevada Policy Research Institutes’s Daniel Honchariw, we see how well-constructed school choice programs hold substantial benefits, not only for the students and their families able to take advantage, but for taxpayers as well.

The program allows businesses that pay Nevada’s Modified Business Tax to receive dollar-for-dollar tax credits for scholarships which income-eligible students (from households with income up to 300 percent of the federal poverty threshold) can use toward tuition for participating private schools and through approved scholarship organizations.  The scholarship size is limited, as is the total amount of funds statewide which can be used by the program.

Using the average, annual per-student spending of $9,165 and the average size of each scholarship awarded, the NPRI report calculates that Nevada taxpayers have saved $1.14 for each tax dollar spent on the program to date.  What’s more, because most of the dollars raised through the tax credits have not actually been spent yet on scholarships (as the process moves forward), the report finds that taxpayers will actually save $1.92 for every tax-credit dollar, because nonpublic schools will actually be assuming responsibility for serving those students.

The program includes requirements for participation by nonpublic schools, including administering norm-referenced annual tests to scholarship students.

In fact, numerous studies have shown that actual per-student spending levels are substantially higher, when other subsidies including building and maintaining school buildings are factored in — so actual taxpayer benefits are likely even greater than those described in the report.  With Nevada experiencing some of the nation’s fastest growth in its school-aged population, and with overcrowding and teacher shortages already common in its public schools, Nevada officials are well-served to pay attention to the fiscal, as well as educational, benefits of choice programs like the Educational Choice Scholarship Program.

Nevada Action is an approved scholarship organization.  Reach us at info[at]nevadaaction[dot]org for information on how to contribute or apply for scholarships.

Read Honchariw’s paper, “Nevada’s Opportunity Scholarship: A Win for Students and Taxpayers.”