By: Jessica Jones
Welcome friends.
The goal of this blog is to improve the information that members receive but also to have conversations about education that we typically do not have.
For this week’s topic, I wanted to focus on the Nevada State Education Associations’ (NSEA) Time For 20 campaign. Mostly how foolish and unrealistic this campaign is and how it will hurt efforts to get more education funding for K-12 in Nevada.
As we approach the Nevada Legislative Session, educators need to be aware that funding for education is determined by what happens in Carson City.
It’s estimated that revenue for the next state budget will increase by nearly $2.3 billion to $11.4 billion. This is mostly due to unexpected growth from the state’s major tax sources such as the Sales and Use Tax, Gaming Percentage Fees Tax, and the Live Entertainment Tax during the current 2021-2023 state budget.
During this legislative session, Nevada legislators desperately need to address healthcare, mental health, teacher and school safety, building the teacher pipeline, K-12 student achievement, ways to grow the economy, and meeting recommended per-pupil funding levels.
With a large surplus, educators and our issues will be competing with multiple interest groups angling for this extra money. So realistic solutions to help educators and improve student achievement are a must to cut through the noise of all these competing interests.
So what does all this mean and what is Time For 20? It has multiple talking points but its main push is that educators should receive a 20% increase in pay. How much would a 20% pay increase for educators cost and how in the world would NSEA get it funded beyond this one-year surplus? A 20% increase in Clark County alone is close to $700 million.
I already know people will ask how I got that number. I multiplied the average teacher salary with benefits of $94,938.48 by 20%. I took that number and multiplied it by 18,000 which is the number of educators we’re supposed to have in CCSD. Finally, I multiplied that number by 2 because in Nevada we are on a two-year budget cycle, a biennium.
It is a lot of money. How would NSEA ensure that the state legislature has a stable revenue source to continuously fund this increase over each biennium moving forward? NSEA doesn’t give any specifics for “how.” You’ll hear a lot of canned statements like, “The time is now!” and “Educators deserve more!” There’s no substance. What’s their plan? How will they attain 20% while multiple state agencies like I mentioned earlier are all angling for this extra money?
I feel like NSEA not having a plan to attain and continuously fund this increase is equivalent to me going up to my mom and dad and asking them to buy me a million-dollar house in The Ridges because I’m a teacher. Then when my parents would ask me how they’d afford to pay for it I’d respond, “It’s your issue. You guys go figure it out.” If they’d push back on how ridiculous that is I’d attack them relentlessly on Twitter and Facebook for questioning me and for not just buying the house. I mean don’t they love me (teachers)? Don’t I deserve more? Isn’t the time now? If this all sounds absurd then you understand my point. This is how NSEA is lobbying our state legislators trying to garner support for Time For 20.
Remember in JUST Clark County 20% for educators costs nearly $700 million. This amount of money would balloon higher because the next thing that NSEA wants with Time For 20 is 20 or fewer students in all core content classes.
As we all know, Nevada has a catastrophic amount of teacher vacancies. The teacher vacancy and teacher pipeline deficit is a systemic problem nationwide. These are issues that must be addressed at the state level in Carson City. To accomplish what NSEA wants with an average class size of 20 students, we’d have to create more teaching positions. Creating more teaching positions does not give us more teachers. All it does is create more teacher vacancies and more long-term substitute positions. This does nothing to help student achievement as there are already tens of thousands of children in CCSD and the rest of the state sitting in classrooms without a licensed educator.
With NSEA lobbying for Time For 20 with no plan to attain it, they fail to address many critical issues affecting Nevada children in education. There are egregious inequalities affecting children in special education, children that come from low-income families, children that are English language learners, and children of color in Nevada public schools; far too many to summarize into a paragraph or a slogan.
NSEA is selling Time For 20 as a magical cure for all in education but it’s a bag of false goods. And while they’ll not say that publicly behind closed doors, that’s what everyone’s saying. The math shows it’s not realistic nor is there any effort or plan by NSEA to address that. Focusing on something so unattainable steals time from attainable things we need now.
We are also seeing a much different approach from Nevada’s School Superintendents. At the December State Board of Education meeting, they gave a presentation advocating for a smaller 10% raise. In addition to this they asked the legislature for more than a billion dollars to ensure that every school has a social worker and counselor to help with the mental health of students.
When I hear that we need significant increases in teacher pay, I think of how this is something that CCEA has already accomplished multiple times over the last few years. As I type this I’m imagining a handful of angry teachers telling me I don’t know what I’m talking about on Twitter and Facebook. Let me break it down.
In 2015, the CCSD’s pay scale had a starting salary of less than $35,000 with the top rate being a little over $72,000. Thanks to CCEA’s efforts, the current CCSD starting salary is more than $50,000 with the top rate being $101,000.
In addition, when CCEA members threatened to strike in 2018 because CCSD froze educator pay, the average teacher salary with benefits (base pay, health insurance, PERS) was just under $80,000 at $79,833.13. Fast forward to the current school year, and the CCEA had successfully secured enough funding to raise the average teacher salary with benefits to $94,938.48. This data was calculated in December 2021 by CCSD. (For reference, it is a $65,478.12 average base pay plus benefits). A new number should be coming out soon.
In seven years, CCEA raised the starting salary in CCSD by 42% and the top pay by 40%. Since 2015, CCEA has increased the average educator salary by 18.9% and that number doesn’t include the recent pay increase to the base salary for new educators. Meaning the average teacher’s salary is going to be higher.
This was accomplished through strategic planning on CCEA’s part over multiple legislative sessions to pass a bill with a new tiered tax structure on Nevada’s mining industry. It was accomplished through the hard work of CCEA by organizing many, many CCEA members, along with the gaming and mining industries, and legislative leadership from both parties in both houses.
There are only 120 days in Carson City to address all the issues impacting education. 120 days to speak with legislators, many of whom are newly elected freshmen and may be unaware of all the education-related issues that have been worked on in previous sessions.
Time For 20 hurts efforts to get more for education because it’s not based on anything that state legislators can realistically do and NSEA knows that. NSEA is wasting valuable time which does more harm than good. You can’t move legislation without a plan.
Don’t buy into NSEA’s canned slogan. Time For 20 is simply noise to distract. As CCEA announces its legislative priorities, you’ll see a realistic approach to address the education needs of our state. Spoilers: it includes a plan.
Till next time.
-Jessica Jones