So great is the demand for any level of enhanced educational freedom, however, that even this "weak tea" version is proving enormously popular. The state Board of Education is overwhelmed by applications to create new charter schools, complains board member Cindy Reid of Henderson.

Officials already cannot handle the workload from as many as 11 new charter school applications submitted for possible startup in the 2008-09 school year, Ms. Reid whines. And the state Department of Education expects a further wave of new applications after the Clark County School District decided in October to end its own sponsorship of new charter schools, citing time and expense.

The solution? The state Board of Education voted unanimously last week to put a moratorium on consideration of any further applications for new charter schools.

"We are not against charter schools," said Board President Cliff Ferry. "What we do want is good charter schools."

Yeah. And it's that same insistence on allowing only "good" schools that's led to the similar moratorium on opening any more public schools of the traditional kind?

Speaking at the contentious three-hour hearing before Friday's moratorium vote, Ray Bacon of the Nevada Manufacturers Association voiced suspicion about the motivation behind the moratorium. Education officials knew that a limitation on the number of charter schools allowed under state law was due to expire, but failed to bring any concerns to the 2007 Legislature, he said.

In the end, though, motivation hardly matters. The board simply has no legal authority to stop processing applications. Sen. Maurice Washington, R-Sparks, chairman of the state Human Resources and Education Committee, said this week the agency has a duty under Nevada law to review all applications submitted to it by charter school proponents and provide written reasons for any denials.

In a letter sent to the board Wednesday, Sen. Washington said, in part: "The Legislature intends that quality charter schools are approved and operating in this state and does not intend that all applications are summarily denied."

In a separate letter sent Monday, Assemblywoman Bonnie Parnell, D-Carson City and chairwoman of the Assembly Education Committee, also noted the legal requirement for the department to process the applications.

The board is free to shift staff to handle these applications. It is free to request an emergency legislative allocation to hire more staff for the process. It is free to streamline its process, especially when it comes to requiring endless paper-pushing to satisfy federal mandates.

And the board should certainly ask for some interim suggestions from the Nevada State Charter School Leadership Team, a group of state education officials, charter school operators, and lawmakers looking for ways to improve the implementation of Nevada's charter school laws -- a group which also sent a letter to the board Wednesday, asking for a delay in the imposition of any moratorium.

In the meantime, the Board of Education is certainly free to warn applicants that delays may be in the offing, as applications are considered on a first-come, first-served basis.

But if this foot-dragging on charter schools continues, it will only hasten the day when Nevadans demand far broader and more meaningful alternatives to the current, dysfunctional public school monopoly.