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Jan. 30, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Poll bodes ill for Nevada schools, group says

By SEAN WHALEY
REVIEW-JOURNAL CAPITAL BUREAU

CARSON CITY -- A survey concluding that only a small percentage of Nevada residents would send their children to public schools if they had other options was called a warning to educational leaders that the state public education system is not meeting the needs of parents or their children.

Just 11 percent of Nevada residents who responded to a recent survey on educational issues said they would send their children to public school if they had the freedom to choose any available option, according to the survey of 1,000 Nevada residents for the Nevada Policy Research Institute and the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice that was released Tuesday.

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    • Nearly half of respondents, 48 percent, would choose a private school, 23 percent would select a charter school and 15 percent would opt for home schooling. Three percent chose a virtual school for their children.

    The most common reason for picking an alternative to a public school was academic quality at 33 percent, followed by school curriculum, 25 percent, extracurricular activities, 13 percent, and safety/discipline, 11 percent, according to the poll.

    NPRI Communications Director Andy Matthews said the poll results should be seen as a warning that the state public education system is not meeting people's needs.

    "It is clear that Nevadans are doubtful of the effectiveness of our monolithic public education system and want more choice when it comes to how their children are educated," Matthews said.

    NPRI, which describes itself as a nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank seeking private, market-based solutions to public policy challenges facing Nevada, supports alternatives to public education, including charter schools and vouchers for parents to send children to school of their choosing.

    Assembly Education Chairwoman Bonnie Parnell, D-Carson City, defended the educational system, saying the Legislature has made progress in offering alternatives to a traditional public education, including measures supporting the creation of charter schools and home schooling programs.

    "I'm a strong supporter of charter schools," she said. "We realize that the traditional public school setting is not for all children."

    Parnell said there has never been any strong appetite for a voucher school program in Nevada because of church-state conflicts and the controversial use of tax dollars in private schools.

    While alternatives to a regular public school were overwhelmingly favored in the poll, just over half, or 53 percent of those responding, said they would strongly or somewhat favor using public funds to send a child to a private school. The other 47 percent were strongly or somewhat unfavorable to the idea.

    The poll shows that about 55 percent are strongly or somewhat favorable to the idea of charter schools, defined as public schools that have more control over their own staff and curriculum

    And 54 percent of those responding were strongly or somewhat in favor of a voucher program, where parents would be given tax money to send their children to a school of their choice, public or private, including religious schools.

    Despite how the poll results are interpreted, Parnell said she believes there is overwhelming support for Nevada's public education system among parents. Nevada's public education system has shown progress in terms of student and school achievement and in reducing the dropout rate, she said.

    The poll also provides some evidence that residents believe Nevada's public education system could be better funded, Parnell said.

    The NPRI interprets the data as showing satisfaction with public education funding, since 61 percent say that public education funding is either "about right" or "too high."

    Keith Rheault, Nevada's superintendant of public instruction, said the support for voucher schools seen in the poll has not been demonstrated at legislative hearings on the issue.

    And the school choices listed by respondents also don't seem to reflect what is actually happening, he said.

    As an example, the number of home-schooled children has dropped 8 percent over the past two years and represents less than 1 percent of all students in Nevada, Rheault said.

    The survey of likely voters was conducted Dec. 14-16 by Strategic Vision, an Atlanta-based public relations firm with a division that specializes in polling. The margin of error for the poll results is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

    Fifty-eight percent of those responding had school-age children. Forty-one percent were Democrats and 40 percent were Republicans.

    The poll also shows that Nevada residents are more concerned about jobs and economic growth, at 25 percent, and taxes, 22 percent, than they are about public education, which came in third at 21 percent.

    Only 7 percent of those responding rated Nevada's public education system as excellent, with 21 percent calling it good, 39 percent saying it is fair and 14 percent calling it poor. The other 19 percent were undecided.

    Most of those polled, 51 percent, said teacher pay is about right. The average annual salary in 2005 was $43,394, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Another 31 percent said the average salary was too low and 18 percent said it was too high.

    The biggest challenges facing Nevada's public school system is a lack of funding, at 33 percent, followed by overcrowded schools, 17 percent, lack of parental involvement, 16 percent, and overcrowded classrooms, 15 percent, according to the poll.

    Lack of safety, 12 percent, and over-testing, 7 percent, also were identified as problems.

    Contact Capital Bureau reporter Sean Whaley at swhaley@reviewjournal.com or (775) 687-3900.

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    Shell wrote on February 03, 2008 01:42 PM: I think we need to go back to the days when we had to show a Birth Certificate and Shot Record to get our children into school. Now we have so many Illegal children in our schools that we cannot keep up. You pretty much need to speak spanish anymore to be a teacher. Maybe if we kept the cost of education, social services and Healthcare from the foreign aid that goes to these other countries we might be able to afford to educate their children. The cost of any Illegal in jail should be withheld from foreign aid also. Then we can afford all of the new prisons that need to be built.


    Steve wrote on January 30, 2008 07:27 PM: Brian,

    If you're responding to me, I don't need anyone to babysit my kids. I don't need ANY of your nanny-state trash. You may be too inept to take care of your kids, but I can take care of my own. It is NOT going to help anything to keep throwing money into a bottomless pit (education system).


    jackson wrote on January 30, 2008 05:08 PM: One way to look at this is that we don't have health insurance for pre-natal coverage, women without health benefits will have more babies with problems, thus, more children in Special Education, requiring more services and money from education. So, which is first, the chicken or the egg? If law makers would use logic in spending funds, we would use less.


    BC wrote on January 30, 2008 02:06 PM: When you say fix, I'm all for it. But there are people that think, and REALLY BELIEVE, that students' feelings and false self-worth are more important than accomplishment and learning. "Everyone should win, yay, let's make it so!!" Competition is bad. Teach to a test, not provide a solid foundation so that kids LEARN how to succeed on their own. This has been going on since the mid 1980's at least. Lack of discipline, lack of an appreciation for learning. Just how do you "fix" that without some massive shift in paradigm and fundamentals?

    Plus, more than ever, everyone thinks the government should provide everything, robbing people of the personal satisfaction of achievement. I don't really think there is a fix for that.


    BC wrote on January 30, 2008 01:58 PM: Well, we could take a cue from our casino friends. Sometimes it's just more feasible to start over. Implode, rebuild!
    I'm all for working. I do it regularly, and manage to live WITHIN my means. I don't have kids, but I understand the importance of education, imparted on me by my parents. I don't claim to have a ton of answers, but, like my analogy, when the "same road" school administrators keep asking for more and more money, providing diminishing returns, when do you stop and say enough?
    Since there always seems to be a shortage in educational funding from the school perspective, I'd like to know a ballpark figure of what IS adequate funding. Really, even a $100 million fudge factor.
    We're not going to hear that, and part of the truth is that the money isn't everything. Most parents suck. People from my generation are the ones with school aged children. It's one of the reasons why I've waited so long to have kids because I know my generation generally sucks. Look at national politics. Those politicians were the people that raised US, and they suck. Big time. Tis a great cycle!


    Dave wrote on January 30, 2008 01:20 PM: Mr. BC,

    I like your analogy except for one thing, you take the "lazy man's road". Instead focusing on cleaning up the road, you want to scrap it all and build a new one? Won't that be more expensive than fixing the one we already have? And won't the same debris end up on the new road as traffic increases, leaving you right where you started, on a "messed up" road. So instead let's ALL show up with our work gloves and start picking this "road" up, if we work together it will be passable in no-time.


    BC wrote on January 30, 2008 11:32 AM: So, let's just say that schools are your current path and schoolchildren are your car, and you find you have to constantly throw money at you car, against all logic, for:

    New tires
    New shocks
    New ball joints
    Constant alignments
    Exhaust repairs
    Other miscellaneous parts

    You just keep throwing money at it. More and more. And then even more. Then you finally get sick of throwing good money after bad and start looking into why your car is always in a sorry state. You think to yourself and realize the route you're taking is full of bumps, pot holes, miscellaneous debris strewn all over, nails, etc., all gumming up the works of your precious car, costing untold dollars and hampering performance.

    Would you be satisfied with your current and future expenditures in this light, or do you attempt to find a new route, a new way?


    Candice wrote on January 30, 2008 10:48 AM: Anybody send this article to the Governor who is cutting education spending again?


    Dave wrote on January 30, 2008 10:05 AM: Well Nevada tax-payers, you are not satisfied with the public school system. Ever hear the saying "you get what you pay for"??


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