Speaker proposes tapping Rainy Day Fund for extra pay for teachers in hard-to-fill positions

Yahoo

16-05-2025

Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager during the State of the State address at the Nevada State Capital in Carson City, Nev. on January 15, 2025. (Photo: Richard Bednarski/Nevada Current)
Nevada Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager is proposing the state tap into the Rainy Day Fund to provide additional pay for public school district teachers in hard-to-fill positions, citing the success similar funding provided two years ago had on the Clark County School District.
The Las Vegas Democrat is also proposing a mechanism to provide charter schools with dedicated funding for broader teacher and support staff raises, making good on a commitment to try and extend to them what they were denied by the Legislature two years ago.
The policy proposal to provide an additional $5,000 per year in pay for district teachers at low-income schools and in critical areas was well received by the Assembly Ways and Means Committee during a hearing Thursday. As was the proposal to establish a mechanism for broader teacher and support staff raises at charter schools.
But the proposed funding mechanism included within the bill — taking $90 million out of the state's fully funded $1.3 billion Rainy Day Fund — may be a sticking point.
Yeager acknowledged it's 'a serious request' that will raise concern and discontent.
'I do think it's accurate to say that it is already rainy and has been raining when it comes to filling hard-to-fill positions,' he continued. 'If we're being honest with ourselves, things are only likely to get worse when it comes to education and education funding given what's happening at the federal level at the moment. So, I believe this is a good use of the funds.'
Democratic Assemblymember Daniele Monroe-Moreno, who chairs the Ways and Means Committee, in the meeting said she was 'not in agreement' with the funding component of Yeager's bill but said she would work to find an appropriate source of funding.
'I don't think we have an answer for that today,' she added.
Monroe-Moreno, who is also chair of the Nevada State Democratic Party, did not elaborate, but Democrats this entire legislative session have warned that an economic downturn and budget cuts at the federal level may force the state to tap the Rainy Day Fund in order to maintain important services.
Yeager's proposal, Assembly Bill 398, would provide up to $90 million in differential pay across two years for public school district teachers in positions deemed hard to fill. To qualify for the differential pay, teachers would have to work at a Title-1 school with a high vacancy rate, defined as 10% at the elementary level, 12% at the middle school level, and 15% at the high school level. Or they would have to work in an area that has been deemed to have a 'critical labor shortage' — English language arts, math, science, or special education.
The Clark County Education Association and CCSD dedicated similar differential pay using an infusion of funding approved by the 2023 Legislature. According to Clark County Education Association Executive Director John Vellardita, who presented the bill alongside Yeager, the results were a resounding success.
Vellardita said Title-1 schools that qualified for the differential pay in 2023 saw a 53% reduction in vacancies, from 1,346 vacancies in May 2024 to 633 in January 2025. Special education positions saw an 84% reduction, from 310 vacancies in August 2024 to 50 in March 2025.
That progress toward getting a qualified teacher in every classroom needs sustained investments, he added. 'It has made a difference. We're asking for this to continue.'
CCEA Vice President Matt Nighswonger said during support testimony that the additional funding helps with teacher retention by incentivizing them to stay in positions that need the most experienced teachers.
'Teachers often view these positions as a stepping stone to a different school or a one-year teaching assignment to demonstrate they are a quality teacher,' he said. 'Once they have demonstrated their prowess, they move on to a school in the suburban ring or to subjects that are not as demanding to teach.'
AB398 funding for educators would be available for all 17 Nevada school districts. But Yeager acknowledged that charter school teachers and education support professionals at both charter and district schools would not be eligible for the hard-to-fill position pay.
'Were our financial situation better, I might have made a different decision,' he said. 'A future legislature can always decide to include them, but I didn't believe it would be fiscally responsible for me to include them now. I don't want to spread the funding too thin so that it doesn't work and achieve the objective of actually filling these hard-to-fill positions.'
The Nevada State Education Association, whose affiliate units include teachers in non-Clark counties and support staff in CCSD, opposes the bill on the grounds it excludes education support personnel who are just as hands-on and vital to student success. Teamsters Local 14, which represents bus drivers and some other support staff within CCSD, similarly opposed the bill.
The Charter School Association of Nevada, Nevada Association of School Boards and Nevada Association of School Superintendents, as well as Clark and Washoe school districts, support the legislation.
Support from the charter school community was due to a conceptual amendment establishing a statewide fund that charter schools could tap to help with raises for their teachers and support staff. Yeager said the idea is to create a system similar to 2023's Senate Bill 231, which provided $250 million in funding for teachers and support staff at public school districts.
The budget committee last week approved an education budget that makes permanent those SB231 raises.
Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo's recommended budget had charter school raises being similarly baked into the education budget, but Democrats rejected that recommendation, saying charter school raises needed to be handled separately. That prompted Lombardo to publicly threaten to veto the education budget.
'I've been clear and consistent on this,' Lombardo said in a statement issued last week. 'I will not sign an education budget that does not include equal pay for public charter school teachers and make teacher pay raises, including those for charter school teachers, permanent.'
Yeager's AB398 provides a possible solution to charter school raises. Charter schools, likely collectively through their authorizing agency, the Nevada State Public Charter School Authority, would have to request the funds from the Interim Finance Committee, which makes financial decisions when the legislature is not in session. The schools would also have to match the funding, a requirement of 2023's SB 231.
The governor's office did not respond to the Nevada Current's request for comment on Yeager's proposal and whether it satisfies his requirement for equal pay for charter school teachers.
The current legislative session must end on June 2, leaving less than three weeks for lawmakers to pass a balanced budget that the governor will sign. In 2023, legislators failed to do so, which forced a 1-day special session.