Nevada's Governor Race - Nevada Children's Education Starts at the
BBME supports candidates whose issues align with our organization's mission of fighting for parental rights, exemplary education and fair representation within Nevada's Washoe County School District. We believe that no child should ever be put down to raise up another, adults' political opinions and personal beliefs have no place in schools, that we must get back to focusing on teaching the basics: Math, English, Social Studies, and Science and that Parents' voices in their child's education should not be silenced.
We endorse Joe Lombardo for Governor because he supports and aligns with the values and mission of BBME.
The Governor's Race
The Governor controls education by; holding the purse strings as he creates the state budget, controlling the law with veto power over legislation, and he appoints positions on the Nevada Department of Education (K-12) and the Board of Regents (Higher Education) who carry out their shared vision. The Structure of Government in Nevada: Executive Branch
Sheriff Joe Lombardo
School safety - Over the past four years, there has been a 46% increase in harassment, threats, and sexual assaults within Clark County School District. Candidate Lombardo believes there should be zero tolerance for violence against students and teachers. As governor, he will work with the Nevada State Legislature to repeal “restorative justice” measures, which have made our schools demonstrably less safe. He will also implement school safety training and support programs.
He supports parental choice by supporting school choice. Candidate Lombardo believes that every student is different and that students and families should be able to choose what educational opportunity works best for them.
He believes students need to focus on job and career training for the jobs of today as well as the jobs of tomorrow. He promises to work with the private sector and the Governor’s Office of Economic Development to expand workforce development training programs to more students across the state.
He wants to invigorate the Knowledge Fund which per this link was created in 2013 by the Governor’s Office of Economic Development. The Knowledge Fund is meant to spur research, innovation, and commercialization in Nevada. Allowing researchers across Nevada to cultivate intellectual property that will continue the diversification of our economy. Projects on public health, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) development, and commercialization of new technologies.
Decrease class size.
He wants to restore “Read by Grade 3” as a way to ensure that students are reading at grade level. WCSD did not support the “Read by Grade 3” program which was
“signed into law by Sandoval during the 2015 Legislative session, making reading at grade level by third grade a priority for Nevada school districts. The priority came with $30 million in new funding initially, and a total of more than $44 million statewide in the governor's latest budget. The district insisted it’s not enough. The law requires schools to keep parents in the loop on a child’s reading level, starting in kindergarten. Beginning in 2019, the law mandates that children who are not reading at grade level repeat the third grade.
In 2019, a Democratic controlled Legislature pushed through AB289 removing the program’s mandatory retention requirement, so a student would move up a grade even if they hadn’t reached grade-level reading.
Possibility of breaking up Clark County School Districts into more manageable-sized districts. Maybe the Washoe County School District should also be looked at to be broken down into more manageable-sized districts where there could be more parental and community involvement.
Incumbent Steve Sisolak
In June 2020, Governor Sisolak issued a proclamation that the state of Nevada is systemically racist; “structural racism has resulted in race as a social determinant of health, with persistent racial disparities in criminal justice, housing, education, health care, employment, worker protections, climate, food access, and technology;“ He applauded the legislators and social justice warriors fighting against Nevada’s systemic racism and racial disparities.
The Governor and the Legislature support AB 168, an equity-driven piece of legislation called restorative justice. Restorative justice is based on the stance that systemic racism causes students of color to be disproportionately disciplined, replacing punishment with a healing conversation to end bad behavior. Instead, it has changed schools into violent battlegrounds. The teachers union who once supported restorative justice is now begging the Governor and the Legislature to end it.
March 2022 - Clark County School District Police say they’ve confiscated 25 firearms from inside schools and reported about 3,000 assaults, batteries, and fights. Teachers and staff felt the escalation in violence is due to the no consequences philosophy of restorative justice. Little is reported on what goes on in the halls of WCSD schools, but during the first week of school there were at least 3 Fights at Hug High School posted to social media. As well as fights ignored by administrators at O'Brien Middle School and guns found in WCSD students' backpacks.
Governor Sisolak did not sign anti-CRT legislation signed by 35 other governors. Instead, he signed multicultural legislation which the NV Department of Education (NVDE) and the School Districts are now using, to not embrace positive multiculturalism, but to incorporate racially divisive social justice teachings.
Governor Sisolak through his appointments to the NVDE continues forward in putting social justice teaching into multiculturalism standards. See here the Nevada Academic Content Standards for Social Studies. One such Governor appointee is NVDE Deputy Superintendent, Dr. Moore, who described teaching social justice as teaching “conflict” in K-3 and higher grades, still teaches conflict but now adds conflict based on a person’s origin. We ask you, is teaching conflict the way to bring about racial harmony?
However, a brave mom of color whose son looked white sued a Nevada charter school for adopting the racist social justice agenda. She evidenced students were being taught about white male privilege and that our country is systemically racist. It is our opinion if Nevada’s leaders continue on this path they will see many more lawsuits draining the budget of money intended to educate students.
Many students were hurt by Governor Sisolak’s failure to completely open up NV schools as many schools in other states had by the fall of 2020. See NV schools would not return to full use for another year. This significantly hurt black, Hispanic, and poor kids who took the biggest hit in math and reading.
Smaller class sizes are already codified in Nevada law, but remain unfunded under Governor Sisolak. Nevada has some of the most overcrowded classrooms in the nation. Educators have called for smaller class sizes that would truly allow teachers to educate ALL students in a safe controlled classroom environment, but that does not happen.
October 2022, Clark County Education Association (CCEA) the largest independent educator union in the country and the State of Nevada will not back either Governor Sisolak or Candidate Lombardo. They did not speak to why they would not support Candidate Lombardo, but they did say why they would not support the Governor as they had in the last election. Their statement read as follows:
“CCEA is the largest independent educator union in the country and the State of Nevada. We are a non-partisan, results-driven organization. As such, we look for candidates who are committed to partnering with us to address the serious issues facing educators and students, as well as improve our workforce to attract new industries.
We still have the largest class sizes in the nation, significant educator vacancies that leave 32,000 students without a full-time educator in CCSD, violence in our schools is on the rise, and, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, our students have 2 years of lost education they will never get back. These issues require leadership at the State level to find strategic solutions.”
AB 365 - We are not sure of how this law works, but it appears to create a government “watchlist” for lack of a better term, to oversee state employees. We believe this could be applied to teachers as their retirement benefits are paid through the state. AB 365 mandates that persons employed by the State be afforded respect, dignity, and equity in the workplace. Sounds good, but it gets scary. Complaints are required to be filed when alleged conduct, whether intentional or unintentional, communicates a negative attitude toward persons of marginalized identities. A respectful work environment should apply to ALL people, but it doesn’t with the passing of this bill. AB 365 racializes the workplace and it gets even scarier, because the person/offender’s name gets put in a report/list which is sent to the Governor and the Legislature. Can anyone say racially hostile work environment?
Governor Sisolak signed off on AB 287 which removes the word “mother” from the birthing process and substitutes the word “person.” This bill also removes the word “woman” from pregnant woman and replaces it with “person” to now read pregnant person. So this may not appear to be related to education, but it is directly related. It shows Governor Sisolak does not believe there are only two genders which will go to female and transgender school policies.
In these times, this historical reference rings more true than ever: “United we stand, divided we fall.” We look forward to days of unity and acceptance for ALL.