Education budget spurs objections

Critics of Gov. Jim Gibbons' proposed budget cuts, including hundreds of student demonstrators, said Tuesday that lawmakers hoping to preserve Nevada's K-12 schools and higher education system must reject the governor's plans.

About 400 University of Nevada students held a rally outside the Legislative Building as lawmakers reviewed Gibbons' proposal for an overall 15 percent decrease in education funding.

The UNR students, accompanied by the school's marching band, waved signs reading, "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance," "Don't cut our future" and "Impeach Gibbons," and chanted, "This is nuts. Stop the cuts."

While K-12 funding would drop by less than 3 percent, state support for universities and community colleges would plummet by more than a third under the governor's spending plan.

Jim Rogers, the higher education system chancellor, told legislators that the proposed cuts are even deeper for the two state universities in Reno and Las Vegas " about 50 percent. He added such reductions would destroy the two schools.

Rogers was joined by other higher education leaders who told legislators that it's unfair to make up for the cuts by doubling or tripling student fees, adding that many students would shift to schools outside Nevada while others would drop out.

Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said it's clear that the lawmakers in the Democrat-controlled Legislature will have to "recreate the budget" proposed by the Republican governor. She said there's no evidence the spending plan was "constructed with rationality."

Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas, already has said his goal is to protect Nevada's educational system. He termed the governor's proposed cuts as "too shortsighted and devastating."

Gibbons, speaking Tuesday in Reno, challenged the lawmakers to find a better solution. Gibbons, who is opposed to new or higher taxes in most cases, questioned whether legislators could "find the revenue to match their rhetoric." He also said higher education regents can raise tuition paid by students.

Gibbons spokesman Dan Burns said critics of the funding cuts should press Congress for quick action on federal stimulus funds. The administration has said those funds would soften the impact of the governor's proposed budget reductions.

The governor's proposed $3.15 billion in state general fund spending for education

accounts for nearly 51 percent of his total plan for the coming two fiscal years.

The state's community college and university system would receive $843.9 million of total education funding. For higher education, that's a decrease of about 36 percent.

Gibbons' proposal provides nearly $2.3 billion, or 37 percent of the total budget, to elementary and secondary public schools. That's down 2.6 percent, or nearly $62 million.

For the K-12 schools, the state's base per-pupil spending would drop from $5,098 this year to $4,945 next fiscal year; and increase by just $1 to $4,946 in the second year of the budget cycle.