This is almost too good to be true. But school choice in Nevada now has a legislative precedent.
State Sen. Barbara Cegavske (R-Las Vegas) introduced the notion of using taxpayer dollars to send disabled and troubled students to the private school of the parents’ (or guardians’) choice early this session. But no one gave her “Special Needs Scholarship” bill (SB 158) a prayer of going anywhere…especially considering the overpowering influence of the teachers union in Nevada which knee-jerk opposes anything that might undermine their monopoly control over government schools.
In addition, the Nevada State Board of Education attached a “fiscal note” to the bill, claiming they would have to hire another full-time bureaucrat to push the paperwork it would take to allow parents of special needs kids to send their kids to a school which could better handle their special needs than the local public school. The fiscal note was added in order to force the bill into the Senate Finance Committee where the union and the bureaucrats figured it would be killed.
But Sen. Cegavske never gave up.
First, she was able to shepard the bill through the Senate’s Education Committee on a 4-2 party-line vote. That sent it to what was expected to be certain death in the Finance Committee. But Sen. Cegavske kept at it and was able to successfully persuade the Department of Education to remove their ridiculous fiscal note.
That set up the favorable vote in Senate Finance on the Cegavske Scholarships this Monday. It passed on a 4-3 party-line vote, with Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus (D-Teachers Union) complaining the whole way that SB 158 was a dreaded “voucher” bill. She was “not happy.”
So the Cegavske Scholarship/Voucher bill came up for a floor vote of the entire state Senate today. And lo and behold, when the smoke cleared SB 158 passed UNANIMOUSLY … 21-0.
Click here to see for yourself the “yeas” and “nays.”
It now goes to the Assembly where only 7 Democrats, combined with all 15 Republicans, can pass this common sense school choice bill into law in Nevada…which would be a HUGE victory for parents and students.
Or will Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley (D-Las Vegas) “whip” her Democrat colleagues into line and kill this rare opportunity for parents of disabled and special needs children to choose the best education for their children … public or private?
The odds are strongly against Sen. Cegavske and her bill in the Assembly. Then again, no one thought it would ever get THIS far. So school choice still has a chance.
Congratulations, Sen. Cegavske, on a well-deserved victory in making it this far! Don’t give up now. Let’s win this one “for the children.”
Posted on May 23rd, 2007 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada
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