Buckley wants to use stimulus for education

Nevada's top Assembly Democrat told a budget subcommittee Wednesday that her priorities are restoring proposed decreases in teacher salaries and making other changes in Gov. Jim Gibbon's proposed K-12 education budget by wise use of federal stimulus dollars.

Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said stimulus money for different education programs could be used to prevent elementary and high school budget reductions. Educators and legislative analysts said they'd work with lawmakers on ways to maximize federal dollars as K-12 stimulus requirements become more definite.

Gibbons' budget plan for the next two fiscal years provides nearly $2.3 billion to elementary and secondary public schools. That's down 2.6 percent, or nearly $62 million. Gibbons also has proposed a six percent pay cut to teacher and all state employees.

"We need to use the stimulus money to fund the biggest needs and, to me, reducing this percentage of cuts substantially and trying restore some of the proposed salary cuts certainly is at the top of my list," Buckley said.

Buckley said steps that could be taken to stop cuts in teacher pay could include elimination of Gibbon's proposed fund of nearly $1.2 million for signing bonuses to teachers hired to help cover expected enrollment increases over the next two years.

"If we are going to have to trim our educational funding, this is one we should look at eliminating and putting the money to restore teacher salary reduction and the overall reductions in base," Buckley said.

Other possibilities could include suspension of a teachers' incentive pay program that could save more than $50 million over the next two years.

Stopping K-12 programs that currently are operating and starting them again when the economy recovers wastes tax payer money, Buckley said, referring to Gibbon's proposed suspension of regional professional development centers. She asked officials for feedback on what it would take to keep centers operational, possibly on a scaled-back basis.

If the centers close, about 100 positions statewide would be eliminated at a savings of about $27 million over the next two years.

Sen. Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said the impact of pay cuts for any state employees isn't known yet, and cautioned school districts and teachers who must negotiate contracts "to be alert to the fact that there will be some cuts that will impact the level of salary."

"I think it would not be unwarranted to say that whatever cuts are made, if any, to state employees, it would be the intent of the Legislature that whatever be done, be done in a fair equitable, uniform manner," Raggio added.