Plan for charter school teacher raises unveiled at Nevada Legislature

Yahoo

16-05-2025

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — In line with statements made over the past week, Democratic Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager on Thursday unveiled a proposal at the Nevada Legislature to fund raises for charter school teachers throughout the state.
And despite statements that were generally supportive, paying for those raises might prove a bitter pill to swallow if the legislation moves forward.
Yeager proposed committing $90 million from the state's rainy day fund to pay for raises for 'hard-to-fill' school positions. A conceptual amendment would tack on $38 million for the charter school teacher raises over the next two years.
'Now, I'm going to acknowledge right away that asking for a transfer out of the state's rainy day fund is a serious request and I believe one that is probably going to cause members of this committee and others some concern and some discontent,' Yeager said as he presented Assembly Bill 389 (AB389) to the Assembly Ways and Means Committee. 'Let me tell you why I'm proposing it.
'I do think that it is accurate to say that it is already raining and has been raining when it comes to filling hard-to-fill positions. And if we are being honest with ourselves, things are only likely to get worse when it comes to education and education funding given what is happening at the federal level at the moment,' Yeager said.
Republicans who voted against the entire education budget to protest the absence of raises for charter school teachers applauded Yeager's efforts on Thursday.
Lombardo threatens to veto education budget over missing charter school teacher raises
The bill received some opposition from unions that objected to education support professionals (ESAs) being left out of the plan. Yeager addressed that issue as he answered questions about the bill.
'I didn't believe it would be fiscally responsible for me to include them now, and and I don't want to spread the funding too thin so that it doesn't work and achieve the objectives of actually filling these hard-to-fill positions,' he said.
John Vellardita of the Clark County Education Association helped present the bill, affirming that funding allocated by the 2023 Legislature made a big difference. That funding brought pay raises of about 20%.
He told the committee that teacher vacancies have been reduced by about 53%, giving examples of the impact at elementary, middle and high schools in Clark County:
'We are very appreciative of the investment that was made last time. It was significant by this body, both in the allocation to the education budget as well as to SB231. It has made a difference down in Clark, and we're asking for this to continue.'
AB389 takes 'a much more surgical approach' designed to make sure there's an educator in each classroom, Vellardita said. Two years ago, Title 1 schools with vacancy rates above 5% were targeted. This time around, that threshold is much higher.
That became clear as Yeager outlined the definition of 'hard-to-fill' positions. They fit into two categories as defined by AB389:
A teacher position at a Title 1 school which has:
A vacancy rate of 15% or more (high school)
A vacancy rate of 12% or more (middle school or junior high)
A vacancy rate of 10% or more (elementary school)
'A teacher position or other position staffed by a person licensed under Chapter 391 of the NRS who is a teacher of record assigned to a classroom and whose duties include actively teaching pupils during a class period for the majority of the class periods during the school day in English language arts, mathematics, science or special education is such subjects are suffering from a critical labor shortage as determined by the board of trustees of the school district.'
Besides the vacancy rates, the definition adds special education teachers to the list.
If AB389 passes, the program would remain completely separate from the education budget. It would run through the Interim Finance Committee, with funds distributed to the Department of Education, which would disburse funds to school districts.
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