Memo: NSEA Opposes Senate Bill 463

For years, NSEA has been calling for greater accountability and controls for charter schools. We know the explosive growth of charters has been driven by deliberate, billionaire-backed efforts to exempt charters from the basic safeguards and standards that apply to our neighborhood public schools. This growth has created an uneven dynamic, undermining local public schools and communities, without producing an overall increase in student learning and growth.

We know charter schools serve proportionally fewer at-risk students, English learners, and students with disabilities, and the plan to address this issue at the Charter School Authority will never achieve parity with our school districts.

While a handful of charter schools are on the losing side of the new funding plan, the latest publicly available modeling of the new funding plan shows charters coming out millions of dollars ahead.

Meanwhile, a majority of Nevada school districts will have their per-pupil budgets frozen in place for a number of years, cutting those districts in inflation-adjusted dollars as their costs increase.

Applying the current consumer price index of 3.9% to hold harmless districts in FY23 alone shows an impact of over $12M. This will make it even harder for these districts to attract and retain educators, maintain class sizes, and effectively operate their districts.