The Nevada Legislature in 2025
Gov. Joe Lombardo presented an education bill Friday in Henderson focused on improving student proficiency rates, create funding parity and open opportunities to overcome less-than-adequate outcomes.
Lombardo, visiting Pinecrest Academy Sloan Canyon, a K-12 charter school, said his Nevada Accountability in Education Act details multiple reforms that ensure K-12 schools are producing measurable results. The act holds school boards, administrators and teachers directly responsible for school performance.
It also provides financial incentives from surplus funds from the Education Stabilization Account. Families can receive expanded school choice through open enrollment policies and transportation support to those attending low-performing schools via transfers to charter or state-approved private schools.
“This bill gives us the authority to act to restructure school boards, to transfer schools to local government oversight when needed and, most importantly, to get struggling schools the help they need before it's too late,” Lombardo said.
The governor said it’s important to remove current barriers to academic success and empower educators to boost literacy and fund charter schools equitably. The gap is too wide between the state’s highest and lowest performing schools. The restructuring comes after the $2.3 billion commitment to education he made in 2023 with the Excellence in Education fund.
“We owe it to our communities to match that investment with real results and real accountability,” Lombardo said. “I am proud of what we've done so far, but let’s be clear. We can no longer accept lack of funding as an excuse for chronic underperformance.”
Interim State Superintendent Steve Canavero outlined key points of the proposal, emphasizing statewide data show Nevada’s challenges in student performance are a systemic issue.
Schools that are identified as low-performing based on district designations or governance would be placed on probation and given two years to improve according to state oversight or interventions, Canavero said. If that doesn’t work, the bill could mean providing corrective measures or consequences.
The state offers many globally competitive schools, and progress is being made. “Signals” indicate fourth-grade literacy measures at approximately 40% in 2023-24, but eighth-grade math skills are low at 23.7% and English language skills also are at 40%. Students who were challenged prior to the COVID-19 pandemic who have returned to classrooms have lost ground, he said.
“We also know at the eighth grade we're seeing tremendous challenges with math and middle school, a key benchmark for entering high school to be prepared for the rigors that will confront our students to be prepared for post-secondary,” Canavero said.
He said the bill does provide alternative achievement options for chronically low-achievement options for families who choose access to open enrollment. To assist, the act would establish the Nevada Integrity and Academic Funding Program. Funding accounts would be available to parents or guardians for qualified expenses to help with family needs, he said.
The Accountability in Education Act also targets helping educators through a financial pool with an Excellence in Education Account for high-performing teachers. The total fund will not exceed $30 million and reward teachers and administrators with up to 10% of their salaries according to their ratings in the educator performance framework, Canavero said.
Educators also can receive immunity from civil and criminal action who intervene in student altercations acting on behalf of student safety without concerns of liability and in accordance with school district and federal policy.
Lombardo said it’s difficult to place an approximate cost of the bill and that it has not been received out of the Legislative Council Bureau.
“We often talk about high expectations for students and teachers,” he said. “It’s time we start holding our systems to the same high expectations.”