Charter school raises expected to come up at Nevada Legislature on Thursday
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Democratic Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager is expected to introduce legislation on Thursday to address charter school teacher raises.
Gov. Joe Lombardo and Republicans in the Legislature raised the issue last week as the education budget was approved without those raises. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro countered that charter school raises were always going to come in separate legislation, and Republicans would have known that if they were paying attention.
Lombardo threatened to veto the education budget as politics heated up, but Democrats assured Republicans that they were committed to providing the raises as long as the schools here held accountable by similar standards being put in place for the state's school districts.
Yeager will present Assembly Bill 398 (AB398) on Thursday. The bill provides additional compensation for hard-to-fill positions for Title 1 schools and special education teachers.
A conceptual amendment that addresses charter school teacher pay raises will also be presented, Democrats said.
On Wednesday, Nevada senate committees heard several bills that have already advanced out of the Assembly:
WRONG WAY DRIVING: AB111, known as 'Jaya's Law' received a second emotional hearing at the Nevada Legislature after advancing on a unanimous 42-0 vote in the Assembly. The Senate Committee on Growth and Infrastructure heard the bill, sponsored by Republican Assem. Brian Hibbetts, who represents District 13 in northwest Las Vegas. AB111 toughens penalties fro wrong-way drivers on divided highways. Such violations would no longer be civil infractions and would be elevated to misdemeanors. The bill is named for 3-year-old Jaya Brooks, who died after a head-on collision that occurred on Dec. 9, 2023. The wrong-way driver also was killed in the crash. Statewide statistics from 2024 show 123 wrong-way crashes were reported and 49 people died. But that's just a fraction of the cases involving wrong-way drivers. Combined, Metro and Nevada State Police had reportes of more than 1,350 wrong-way drivers. Two years ago, many traffic offenses were decriminalized, but AB111 would make wrong-way driving a misdemeanor again. The committee passed the bill on a unanimous vote, sending it to the Senate Floor
SCHOOL BUS RED LIGHT CAMERAS: AB527 would allow the use of cameras installed on school bus stop arms, with the goal of catching people who ignore the stop signals. A pilot program in Clark County put cameras on 30 buses, capturing an average of nearly 6 illegal passings per bus per day. Presenters said if that data is extrapolated to the entire 2,000-bus CCSD bus fleet, cameras would catch more than a half-million violations — in just three months' time. It would cost about $10,000 per bus, and revenue generated from tickets is expected to generate that much money and more. Additional revenue could be used to reimburse law enforcement for additional personnel, to pay for a third-party to install/maintain the cameras, or for safety infrastructure around schools. Each school district would make the decision about where the money goes. The Senate Committee on Growth and Infrastructure passed the bill unanimously in work session, sending it to the Senate floor.
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