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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.

The Nevada Legislature approved several measures during the 2019 80th Legislative Session aimed at conserving natural resources, limiting the use of water, and increasing energy efficiency statewide.

The debate surrounding the 2020 Census has largely dominated the summer news cycle.

In recent years, Nevada, under Governor Brian Sandoval, invested heavily in our state’s elementary and secondary schools. Unfortunately, despite the historic investment of resources, supported by our taxpayers, Nevada’s K-12 education system continues to rank at the bottom in many national rankings, such as chance for success in one’s future career.

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.

Recently, WalletHub published a study of 2019’s Best & Worst States for Millennials, a ranking of all 50 states and the District of Columbia to determine the most livable states for Millennials, defined as “individuals who were born between 1981 and 1997.”

The annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), which took place April 5-9, is considered one of the major academic conferences for educational research, attended by educational practitioners and scholars from school districts, community colleges, and universities to discuss their latest research.

Recently, the Guinn Center released a policy report analyzing the academic performance of Nevada’s virtual charter schools. The Guinn Center’s report concludes that Nevada’s virtual charter schools are never the lowest performing schools in the state; however, in nearly all measures, these schools perform below the statewide average.

The U.S. government annually distributes hundreds of billions of dollars in grants to state and local governments, non-profits, educational institutions, individuals, and more.

The Clark County School District (CCSD) will discuss, and possibly seek approval of its new 5-year strategic plan at the Board of Trustees’ meeting on February 28, 2019. When compared to the previous strategic plan under Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky, the proposed plan is more substantial in both length and detail.

The Guinn Center for Policy Priorities reports weekly on the 80th Session of the Nevada Legislature, summarizing major legislative developments from the previous week and discussing the current week's schedule. 

The Guinn Center for Policy Priorities will be publishing regularly a “Legislative Update” to help inform residents of Nevada about activities and actions during the 2019 80th session of the Nevada Legislature. In our nonpartisan manner, we will (1) summarize committee hearings and actions and recap floor actions in both houses; (2) provide an overview of the upcoming schedule; (3) highlight upcoming events such as deadlines, addresses, joint meetings, and hearings, as well as (4) offer some tips and observations along the way.

Once the upcoming legislative session is over, we may look back on the month of January 2019 as predictive of the future of K-12 education funding in Nevada. On Tuesday, January 8th, Communities in Schools hosted an Education Summit that included a major education finance revelation: the legislature is considering a weighted funding formula for Nevada education; unfortunately, the amount the State of Nevada contributes to education may not substantially increase. On Thursday, January 10th, there was a Clark County School District (CCSD) Board meeting that explored the impact of recent budget cuts on district operations

Last night, Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak gave his first State of the State address before legislators, his cabinet members, other elected officials, his family, friends, and supporters. His plan did not portend a dramatic shift in policy – something akin to A Bold New Day in Nevada. Rather, his vision, anchored to our strong economy, revealed a steady continuation of many of the investments and programs supported by his predecessor, particularly in education. Overall, Governor Sisolak’s vision seeks to ensure that all Nevadans are included in our continued economic expansion.

The release of the Economic Forum’s “Forecast of Future State Revenues” in December of even-numbered years marks an important date on Nevada’s fiscal calendar. This official forecast contains projections for the unrestricted revenue portion of the General Fund, which is the State’s major operating fund. It is binding on the Governor’s Recommended Budget for the upcoming biennium. The budget will be prepared by Governor Brian Sandoval, who will transition it to incoming Governor Steve Sisolak.

The education community is facing a data revolution of sorts. Schools, districts, and states are stressing the importance of data through phrases like “data-driven decision-making” or “data-driven instruction.” To better streamline and standardize across school districts and states, data following a student from early childhood education to their integration into the workforce is being collected to track student trajectories and outcomes. We at Teach Plus and the Guinn Center celebrate the importance placed on education data. But, the numbers that are widely available and commonly reported are items that are measured once, maybe twice, a year. One example is summative assessments, which are given to students at the end of a school year to understand their comprehension of material. Another example, chronic absenteeism, is an annual calculation of the percentage of students missing at least a specified number of school days. And growth data is generally measured year-over-year.

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 the Assembly and Senate.

Medicaid is the nation’s largest provider of health care coverage, covering more than 73 million Americans and accounting for nearly 16 percent of national health care spending. Medicaid expansion, one of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) primary coverage initiatives, provides Medicaid coverage to adults between the ages of 19-64 years old with incomes below 138 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) in all states. However, the expansion was subject to a legal challenge, and, in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, in 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the choice to expand (or not) fell under the purview of each state.

At the November 2018 General Election, Nevadans considered six statewide ballot measures for approval. Five of the six statewide ballot initiatives passed by a majority of registered voters. The sixth, Question 3: The Energy Choice Initiative, was not approved.

Our research team often receives questions regarding the graduation rates of schools, districts, and the State of Nevada. A previous blog discussed the potential cause of the recent increase in graduation rates observed in several Nevada school districts. However, a recent discovery left us puzzled. The Clark County School District (CCSD) and Washoe County School District (WCSD) make up a significant portion of the public school enrollment in Nevada (approximately 80 percent according to the Nevada Report Card). The most recent graduation data available for the class of 2017 reports CCSD’s graduation rate is 83.2 percent and WCSD’s rate is 84.0 percent. However, the overall graduation rate for Nevada is only 80.9 percent. This conundrum (how can the two districts that comprise approximately 80 percent of the State’s student enrollment have a graduation rate that is several percentage points higher than the State of Nevada average) led to this blog post.

As the driest state in the nation, Nevada has always faced challenges when managing its scarce water resources. But this fact is especially true in the desert landscape of Southern Nevada, where the average precipitation rate is just four inches per year. Further complicating matters, southern Nevada relies on a single source, Lake Mead, for nearly 90 percent of all of its water resource needs. The reservoir, which is provisioned by the 1,450-mile-long Colorado River, serves nearly 2.2 million people throughout Clark County in Southern Nevada, which contains over 70 percent of the overall state population. For these reasons and more, effective water resource management with respect to Lake Mead requires a careful consideration of evolving supply and demand trends in the region. Here, these developments and related challenged will be assessed.

Every year Education Week publishes Quality Counts, a ranking of the education systems in each of the 50 states and District of Columbia. In the 2018 report, Nevada ranked 51st. However, the methods to create this overall ranking are complicated, with Education Week aggregating 39 different variables that are grouped into three categories (Chance for Success, School Finance, and K-12 Achievement).

Nestled in a basin surrounded by snow-capped peaks, Lake Tahoe stuns sightseers with its kaleidoscopic colors, which fall on a spectrum of deep emerald to rich turquoise. Its extraordinary beauty and wide assortment of recreational options make Lake Tahoe an attractive tourist destination, with about three million visitors each year. Lake Tahoe’s splendor has been something of a double-edged sword, however, as a persistent decline in environmental quality has troubled conservationists for nearly 150 years.

Nevada is the driest state in the country. The state’s desert climate and mountainous topography contribute to significant evaporation losses and an average precipitation rate of less than ten inches per year, the lowest annual rainfall in the United States. In Southern Nevada, where more than 70 percent of the state population lives, the average precipitation rate is less than just four inches per year. Complicating matters, issues like over-appropriation of water rights, persistent drought, and rapid population growth continue to strain the state’s already scarce resources. For these reasons, among others, the economic and environmental landscape of water in Nevada is unique.

In 2014, the Stanford Graduate School of Business, in collaboration with BoardSource and GuideStar, surveyed almost 1,000 directors of nonprofit organizations about the composition, structure, and practices of their boards. The researchers found that “the skills, resources, and experience of directors are not sufficient to meet the needs of most nonprofit organizations.”Boards exist to provide governance and fiduciary responsibility to nonprofit organizations. Talented, competent board members are critical to the success of nonprofits; their (donated) time and expertise can help advance the mission of the organization and build a stronger enterprise.

Nevada’s 2016-2017 high school graduation rate increased significantly over the prior year, jumping from 73.6 percent to 80.9 percent according to data posted on the Nevada Report Card. Around the state, various explanations have been offered for this increase. In the Clark County School District (CCSD), this increase has been attributed to weekly data shared with principals that identify students who were falling off track to graduate. The Washoe County School District (WCSD) has credited the increase to data availability that assists with tracking each student as they progress through school. A recent newspaper article cited a more disturbing reason for the increase: students at risk of not graduating may be enrolled in online courses, which might not be as academically rigorous as those taught in a traditional classroom.

From the Natural State to the Silver State, from the delta to the desert, from the home of Johnny Cash to the playground of Elvis, Nevada and Arkansas differ considerably, but in other ways, these two states are surprisingly similar. As a lifelong Arkansan who moved to Nevada this summer, it seemed instructive to begin my new role as Director of Health Policy at the Guinn Center by exploring similarities and differences between the two states, with a particular emphasis on the healthcare landscape. A discussion and comparison of select population features and demographic factors and how they influence the healthcare landscape of the two states follows.

Singer Nelly’s lyrics “It’s getting hot in here” comes to mind every summer here in Nevada. In the north, one may reference the heroic efforts to extinguish raging fires, most recently the Qwyhee and Martin fires, the latter of which has been contained. In the south, residents are bracing for another excessive heat wave, which may have played a role in the death of seven residents last week.Around the Silver State, air conditioning companies and their heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) technicians are in high demand during the hot summer months. Interviews with several air conditioning companies in southern Nevada indicated that they receive roughly 50-200 service calls during the summer months, which is often double what they receive during other times of the year. On average, customers may have to wait approximately 24-48 hours for air conditioning companies in southern Nevada to respond to a service call.

Nevada continues to struggle to reduce homelessness across the state. The rate of homelessness in Nevada remains well above the national average at 26 individuals per 10,000, and as illustrated in Figure 1, California is the only state in the Intermountain West with a higher homelessness rate. Furthermore, the Las Vegas/Clark County metropolitan area is home to one of the largest homeless populations in the country, ranking 8th in the nation in the major city category.

The Washoe County School District (WCSD) over the years has faced a plethora of issues, including a massive structural deficit, and a lack of ability to issue bonds. In addition to a structural deficit which hindered WCSD’s ability to keep up with much needed repairs and maintenance, the immense growth of the county also led to overcrowding in schools. In 2015, the Washoe County Public Schools and Overcrowding Repairs Committee was formed by Senate Bill (SB) 411 during the 78th Nevada Legislative Session to address a lack of capital funding for school facilities and critical building repairs, and to analyze overcrowding issues affecting the school district. In January 2016, the Public Schools and Overcrowding Repairs Committee decided to create a ballot question for voter consideration in the 2016 general election to enable a source of funding for capital needs across the district

Earlier this month, the Clark County School District (CCSD) announced that it had enacted budget cuts amounting to approximately $68 million from its 2018-2019 general operating fund. To submit a balanced budget, district schools were asked to cut $47 million from their individual budgets, and the central administration indicated it would decrease its budget by $21 million.

Last September, President Donald Trump announced his decision to rescind the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program. DACA allowed qualifying Dreamers to defer their deportation for up to two years by applying to either work or attend institutions of higher education in the United States (U.S.). In reference to the 2001 Dream Act that Congress failed to pass, Dreamers refers to a category of undocumented immigrants between the ages of 15 and 36 that illegally migrated to the U.S. as young children. President Trump’s initial plan to phase out the DACA program enacted a strict deadline for current applicants to reapply by March 5, 2018. Approximately 132,000 individuals out of the eligible 154,000 undocumented beneficiaries renewed their applications. Since the program’s creation is 2012, DACA has enabled more than 13,000 Dreamers to defer their deportation. In response to President Trump’s announcement of a deadline, 1,660 young adults reapplied out of 2,140 eligible beneficiaries in Nevada.

For many, June marks the month of graduation ceremonies and festivities to acknowledge this rite of passage. But data shows that many individuals, especially African Americans, Latinos and low-income students, are not graduating and successfully moving through these transition points along the college and career pathway. There are unfortunate yet clear findings regarding educational disparities by race in Nevada:

Would Nevada home buyers benefit from a flood hazard disclosure act, which would legally require sellers and their acting agents to explicitly inform prospective home buyers if the property occupies a high-risk flood zone? Admittedly, it has been some time since Nevada experienced a significant flood disaster, but as history informs us, the region is not immune to such catastrophes. On July 8, 1999, a severe flood destroyed 369 Las Vegas homes and cost an estimated $20.5 million in total damages to both public and private property. Rural towns in the region have been affected by major floods as well. In September 2014, a flash flood damaged or destroyed a total of 139 homes in the cities of Moapa, Logandale, and Overton. Thus, despite the dearth of annual rainfall in the region (Nevada is the driest state in the nation), the risk of experiencing a flood disaster remains a legitimate threat.

The Nevada Legislative Committee to Study Issues Regarding Affordable Housing held its third meeting of the 2017-2018 Interim on May 15, 2018. The Committee was established to discuss existing challenges and potential solutions related to affordable housing in Nevada. The Committee “…is required to conduct a study….and submit a report of the results of the study and recommend[ed] legislation to the 2019 Legislative Session.”At the mid-May meeting, agencies and stakeholders throughout the state were invited to present their perspectives, research studies, and proposed strategies in an effort to build a comprehensive solution to meet the growing demand for affordable housing in the state.