LATEST NEWS

We’re looking forward to providing our supporters with insights and analysis in each of our policy areas, while also continuing to get robust, nonpartisan research into the hands of all Nevadans.

The following excerpt is from an article originally published in the Reno Gazette Journal, How much does Nevada spend per pupil — and how does it compare with other states?

Only days remain in the 2025 Nevada Legislative Session. Find out how the Guinn Center is making an impact.

Featured on Nevada Newsmakers: Jill Tolles, Executive Director, on what the Guinn Center has been able to accomplish in the past two years.

Jill Tolles continues her conversation with KTVN about what the center does in general, and how it's a resource for the community.

Jill Tolles, Executive Director of the Guinn Center, sits down with Ariana Bennett of KTVN, about a few of our recent research projects.

The Guinn Center team has been hard at work, writing briefs on timely topics like federal funding use in Nevada, the proposed split of the Department of Health and Human Services, the state’s persistent health workforce shortages, and AI trends in Higher Education—but it doesn’t stop there.

Nevada continues to face an affordable housing crisis. There is a shortage of available homes for those at lower income levels. And the “missing middle” of Nevadans are also struggling to purchase attainable homes and create generational wealth. Our panel takes a deeper look into solutions and legislation that could make a difference.

The following excerpt is from an article originally published in the The Nevada Independent, Report shows Nevada’s heavy reliance on federal funds — and susceptibility to cuts.

The following excerpt is from an article originally published in the The Nevada Independent, Nevada has an affordable housing crisis. A new report shows ways to fix it.

As the year comes to a close, we want to thank you for your continued support of the Kenny Guinn Center for Policy Priorities.

Dr. Anna Colquitt, Director of Education Policy and Principal Investigator of the Early Childhood Systems report, answered viewer comments and questions from our ECS webinar on October 16, 2024.

Dr. Anna Colquitt, Director of Education Policy, Guinn Center, sits down with Nevada Newsmakers about per pupil spending compared to other states.

The Guinn Center hosted a "First Look" webinar on its recently published report on Nevada's Pupil-Centered Funding Plan.

The Guinn Center's Executive Director, Jill Tolles, moderated a panel of cybersecurity experts at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, to facilitate a critical and timely discussion on election cybersecurity. The panel was held on October 4, 2024, on the UNLV campus.

The Kenny Guinn Center for Policy Priorities is publishing several voter education policy briefs ahead of and during the 2024 election season to address common questions about voter registration processes, election security, and election law.

The Guinn Center hosted a "First Look" webinar on its recently published report on Nevada's early childhood systems (ECS).

We’re often asked how we choose the topics we study. The answer is two-fold. About half of our research comes in the form of specific government requests. The other half is inspired by you.

Help the Guinn Center determine its 2025 research priorities by taking our annual survey.

The work we are doing is crucial to better outcomes for our children, businesses, and future in Nevada — and it’s not finished.

Director of Education Policy Dr. Anna Colquitt joined Assistant Director Kristine Caliger to discuss the research team’s progress on the Guinn Center's study on Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) systems, slated for release in September 2024.

An Interview with Meredith Levine, Director of Economic and Fiscal Policy

This report summarizes key demographic indicators for youth in Nevada. The report also presents data for various outcomes among youth in the areas of employment, health, substance abuse, and educational attainment.

Las Vegas is now the fastest-growing city in the United States. Recently, we interviewed more than 50 community members and leaders in Southern Nevada to understand better their experience with extreme heat and how COVID-19 exacerbated their existing vulnerabilities to heat. Most reported that COVID-19 had exacerbated existing heat-related challenges and presented new ones in one of four decision spaces (e.g., public, private, transit, and workplace).

Policymakers in Nevada and elsewhere are laser-focused on ways to support and invest in our workforce to spur the pandemic-ravaged economy to return to its full potential. This exercise involves identifying people who are missing and thinking about ways to support them and reimagine a much more inclusive workplace. Women have been the subject of many of these discussions. But as we undertake this exercise, who else is missing? What else can we do?

In mid-August, the U.S. Census Bureau released the first tranche of data collected from the 2020 Census. There are a few interesting trends, one of which could have possible implications for decision-makers and policy leaders in Nevada. Census data revealed that Nevada’s population grew by 15 percent in the past decade.

Headlines continue to call attention to a shortage of workers in the leisure and hospitality sector here and around the country. Workers are supposedly staying at home and avoiding work given federal unemployment insurance benefits — or so the story goes. But the commentaries fail to fully acknowledge that the “weird” labor dynamics we are observing may be the result of a paradigm shift fueled by workers who are reimagining work in a post-COVID economy.

The Economic Forum is a state-mandated panel that convenes periodically to submit revenue projections for the General Fund—Nevada’s major operating fund—to the Governor and the Legislature. It is a five-member committee drawn from the private sector, with three members selected by the Governor and one nominated by each of the Assembly and Senate.

As we remember the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. and his quest for racial equality, we observe that African Americans in Nevada have made tremendous political gains. However, they continue to struggle economically, revealing the damaging and stubborn effects of historical discriminatory policies, which limited access to capital and segregated neighborhoods and schools.

As the director of a policy center, I spend much of my time identifying gaps, analyzing problems, and drawing attention to Nevada’s policy challenges — with the singular focus of improving our state. Not surprisingly, this work can often lead to frustration and disappointment. The coronavirus pandemic has added to the heaviness of our efforts (and our organizational workload) as we witness the brutal devastation and subsequent needs across the state.

Nevada is facing an unprecedented economic challenge brought about by the global pandemic. Our recovery as a state must be ambitious and include a strategy that encompasses all of Nevada—urban and rural. Recent events have highlighted our need for a comprehensive rural development strategy. Last month, Democratic U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto proposed a bill, the Northern Nevada Rural Land Management, Conservation, and Military Readiness Act, which was immediately met with concern from environmental and indigenous groups.

The October 2020 meeting of the Economic Forum provided a comprehensive assessment of Nevada’s economy from a variety of different perspectives. COVID-19 is a public health crisis that has produced a significant economic shock. Unemployment continues to remain high, and visitation has not returned to pre-COVID levels, which presents a challenge in a tourism-dependent economy.

Gov. Steve Sisolak extended by 45 days the statewide residential eviction moratorium. A day later, President Donald Trump and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an eviction moratorium through the end of the year.

Since the Great Recession, the Silver State has been undergoing a great economic transformation to make Nevada’s economy more resilient. Indeed, Nevada’s business-friendly tax structure and economic growth have attracted many global businesses, such as Tesla, Switch, Google, and Amazon, which are helping diversify our economy.

The Clark County School District, like districts across the nation, is creating a school reopening plan for the fall. However, these plans make two (often unrecognized) assumptions.

Nevada school districts, like districts across the nation, are creating school reopening plans for the fall. However, these plans make two (often unrecognized) assumptions.

The Economic Forum is a state-mandated panel that convenes periodically to submit revenue projections for the General Fund—Nevada’s major operating fund—to the Governor and the Legislature.

The coronavirus pandemic has necessitated an entirely different way of life for individuals in the United States and throughout the world. In a state whose economy is largely dependent upon tourism, travel, gaming, sporting events, and 24-hour businesses, the abrupt closure of non-essential businesses followed by long-term social distancing due to the pandemic, is certainly daunting.

The U.S. Census Bureau started inviting households to participate in the 2020 census in mid-March and releasing daily 2020 census self-response rates in late March. Since then, we have been keeping a close eye on the self-response rates in Nevada.

There is no doubt we are living and leading through unprecedented times – a time when the travel and hospitality industries are forging unchartered territories; where in just a few short months, the entire industry was brought to its knees with the global pandemic of COVID-19.

The 2020 Census is here! The road to the 2020 census has been long and marked by controversy, particularly concerning the potential inclusion of a citizenship question on the 2020 census questionnaire (there is no citizenship question on the census questionnaire).

Many of us at the Guinn Center, like many families across Nevada, have children who have been affected by the recent school closures. On March 19th, Governor Steve Sisolak ordered K-12 schools closed until April 16th. In the same directive, the governor stated all school districts must provide distance learning opportunities by March 23rd.

As of March 12, households in the United States are beginning to receive invitations to participate in the 2020 Census. As the number of cases of COVID-19 in the United States continues to increase, there is some uncertainty about the potential for the virus to negatively impact the 2020 census.

Our sixth census snapshot highlighted some of the challenges that will be faced when trying to obtain a complete census count in Nevada’s cities. One significant challenge is outreach to those who do not speak English well or at all.

The last two census snapshots introduced the census tract segmentation scheme produced by the Census Bureau Communications Research and Analytics Team (CRAT) and described Nevada’s hard-to-count rural census tracts.

The previous census snapshot introduced the census tract segmentation scheme produced by the Census Bureau Communications Research and Analytics Team (CRAT).

Our previous census snapshots (focused on 2010 census return rates, areas in Nevada expected to respond to the 2020 census at low rates, and 2010 census return rates and low response scores in Nevada’s cities) have shown the areas of Nevada that are likely to be hard to count during the 2020 census.

Our first two 2020 Census Snapshots show the 2010 census mail return rates and the 2020 low response scores by census tract for the whole state of Nevada.

In our first snapshot of the 2020 census in Nevada, we looked at how many Nevadans responded to the 2010 census.

The 2020 Census is fast approaching, and Nevada needs an ambitious and far-reaching campaign to count everyone. According to the Urban Institute, Nevada faces an undercount of between 23,900 and 54,700 people.

As we remember the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. and his quest for racial equality, we observe that African Americans in Nevada have made tremendous political gains.

Open Enrollment for individual health insurance plans in Nevada for the 2020 coverage year ran from November 1, 2019 through December 20, 2019.

The Economic Forum is a state-mandated panel that convenes periodically to submit revenue projections for the General Fund—Nevada’s major operating fund—to the Governor and the Legislature.

Last year, Nevada’s two, four-year public research universities — the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) — received the Carnegie R1 designation reserved for institutions with “very high research activity.” This designation placed both of Nevada’s public universities into a competitive list of the top 130 universities across the nation.

In our previous blog post regarding comparative proficiency rates on the Smarter Balanced Assessment (commonly referred to as the SBAC), we discovered that changes in SBAC proficiency rates between grade levels were consistent across all SBAC states.

Open enrollment for individual health insurance plans has been underway since the beginning of November and ends on December 15 in Nevada and in most other states.

Every Spring, 3rd to 8th grade students in Nevada as well as several other states gather around computers to take the Smarter Balanced Assessment. This test, often referred to as the SBAC, is the (partial) basis upon which elementary and middle schools are awarded points in the Nevada School Performance Framework (NSPF).

The Guinn Center presented at the recent Nevada Public Health Association conference. A copy of the presentation can be found here

An often-cited figure is the vast scope of the Clark County School District (CCSD) as a proportion of Nevada’s total K-12 population. The current Superintendent Jesus Jara, in his State of the Schools address, even noted that “if we fix Clark [County], governor, we fix your state.”

Homelessness strains governmental resources and is an enormous burden to those experiencing it. Unsheltered homelessness is a particularly thorny problem as it often correlates with chronic homelessness, and those experiencing the latter are one of the most vulnerable populations in the country.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a federal program, provides nutrition benefits to supplement the food budget of low-income families and individuals.

This blog is about questions more than answers. While we have heard many educational conversations at the Clark County School District (CCSD) Board of Trustee meetings, most are focused on current operations and not on long-term, strategic choices.

Earlier this month, CNBC released its America’s Top States for Business, a ranking of all 50 states based on their economic climate and competitiveness.