LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Las Vegas City Council members discussed the possibility of funding education in the future during a special council meeting on Monday.
It comes after an initiative last year to divide up Clark County School District caused a stir.
"If that were to come to pass, how are we to take up that responsibility," Mayor Carolyn Goodman asked. "It's an enormous undertaking and we certainly do not want to be blindsided and not prepared."
The initiative failed to make the 2024 ballot because of a lack of signatures.
However, the city council wants to be prepared should the city ever be tasked with the responsibility of education.
One speaker during the meeting was Guy Hobbs who is the chair of the Nevada Commission on School Funding. This commission was created in 2019 when the state passed a law to to guide the state Department of Education on funding.
According to Hobbs, Nevada is still behind other states when it comes to per-pupil funding. A report from November found in 2020, Nevada's per-pupil spending was nearly $4,000 lower than the national average.
"Unless you can get people to realize that there is a problem and the problem is of a certain size, you never get around to solutions," Hobbs said.
Hobbs spoke at the meeting to provide insight to city council members on what to consider.
"I would think for any of the cities, in particular, it includes things like capital and operating," Hobbs said.
One aspect brought up for consideration is the way consumers spend their money and the way certain items are being taxed. According to Hobb's presentation, consumers spend much more on services over goods compared to 50 years ago. He said it's important the taxes reflect this.
"In the state of Nevada, sales tax is only on tangible goods and this is in the state Constitution," Hobbs said. "So everything we buy that's not tangible, services and downloads, things like that, don't have sales tax."
Hobbs said there's still a way to generate revenue even with the protections in the state law.
"It gets into a quirky area of tax law but if we don't call it sales tax we can do it," Hobbs said.
Jeremy Aguero, principal analyst with Applied Analysis, also spoke at the meeting.
"The state of Nevada has made some tremendous changes when it comes to K-12 education funding," Aguero said. "We have a different funding formula than we had a few years ago which means every dollar that is earmarked for education actually now stays with K-12."
In terms of whether or not the city is prepared to oversee education funding, Aguero said there's still time to prepare and ask.
"I don't think any city council in the country is prepared to overnight, all of a sudden, take over hundreds of schools," Aguero said. "I think what we do is start asking questions. Number one, is there an advantage for them to take over the schools? Is there not? Is bigger better? Is smaller better? Is there something in between that's optimal? I think also understanding how the funding formula works as well."
City council members acknowledged Monday's meeting is just the start of many meetings down the line surrounding this topic.
There is no immediate plan or proposal to divide up Clark County School District.
