Legislators pass the test on education solutions

One of the most highly contested battles in the Legislature was supposed to be over what plan would be chosen to boost Nevada's schools out of the bottom of nationwide education rankings.

Would it be the expensive all-day kindergarten plan favored by the Democrats, which they say has been proven in other states? Or would it be Gov. Gibbons' plan to put more power in the hands of individual schools?

It can only be viewed as a success that the answer is both, even though both sides had to scale down the extent of their plans.

The reason it's good to have both is because there are lingering questions about the effectiveness of any one approach. All-day kindergarten is not a slam dunk to improve the state's schools in the long term, although it has been shown to have positive short-term impacts on students.

All-day kindergarten is certainly a good idea, but the question is whether we can get more bang for the buck by funding other options.

Now we'll know, thanks to a budget that will provide all-day kindergarten to 63 more schools at a cost of $15 million. Democrats initially wanted full-day kindergarten in 340 schools. A phased-in approach makes sense. If it produces the results its proponents expect, expansion will be an easy sell in future sessions.

The same goes for the governor's school-empowerment plan, which deserves a look.

The governor wisely backed off his initial plan to fund it with incentive money used to attract teachers, but it will still get $10 million.

Neither of those plans will be a quick fix, and, in two years, improving education will still be one of the top priorities of legislators.

But this session was a step in the right direction.