THE GREAT ILLUSION
Time to end the State Board of Education’s magic show of supporting charter schools
BY JOE ENGE

Joe Enge is a member of the Carson City School Board, author of two world history textbooks, a former high school teacher in Nevada from 1988 to 2006 and a Fulbright teacher to the former Soviet Union.

Expert illusionists, out of necessity, have to be highly skilled at diversion and distraction to manipulate audiences with misdirection. The same is true of the Nevada State Board of Education (NSBOE) that normally excels at subtle nuances to gut charter schools, or other reforms that challenge the status quo, while publicly keeping their facade as champions intact. 

While pretending to embrace charter schools, they are actually choking them as the NSBOE has been extremely successful in keeping their number in Nevada embarrassingly low at 22, of which five are state sponsored. Arizona, by stark contrast, has issued 355 charters that operate 469 school sites.

Deftly, the NSBOE successfully changed NRS wording from “shall” to “may” during the 2005 session regarding state charter school approval without many key legislators being aware. Lance Burton would be proud to have pulled that trick.

Not only was the NSBOE able to squirm out of sponsoring charter schools without drawing much attention, they were very effective in closing them with hypercritical vigilance under the guise of accountability. Divide and conquer policy was effective as charter schools knew they couldn’t outrun the NSBOE bear, but simply had to outrun the other guy.

So what changed to warrant their unanimous vote on Nov. 30 for a moratorium on charter school applications? Concern over the Nevada Department of Education being overwhelmed by charter school applications without enough personnel to properly handle them is the public diversion. Adding a nice touch: NSBOE members espousing their general support of charter schools and insisting they wanted to maintain their quality.

Board member Cindy Reid told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, “I really like charter schools. I think they play a valuable role in our state. But if we don’t take a pause now, we will hurt the program more by not running it responsibly and efficiently.” Reid sponsored this agenda item as chair of the subcommittee on charter schools.

Two of the most involved legislators in education and members of the Interim Legislative Committee on Education were not distracted by the slight of hand. Separate, warnings came from Sen. Maurice Washington (R) and Assemblywoman Bonnie Parnell (D), stating in no uncertain terms the statutory obligations of the NSDOE to process all charter school applications. The Nevada State Charter School Leadership Team, a bipartisan group formed by a grant from the National Governors Association, was taken by surprise when NSBOE ignored their expert advice to not enact a moratorium.

Liberty Watch readers may remember my May 2007 column “Battle for Control” on a bill last session to strip the NSBOE of its powers and put the Nevada Department of Education under the governor’s authority. In light of the lack of confidence many lawmakers already have in the state board, dismissing warnings from Sen. Washington and Assemblywoman Parnell is not the hallmark of political wisdom. Criticisms from Sen. Bill Raggio (R) during the hearing last April included descriptions of the NSBOE performance over the last decade as being dysfunctional and lacking leadership. For the state’s highest education board to confirm such an appraisal so shortly after these scathing legislative indictments comes across as counterproductive. 

The short-sighted objective appears as an attempt to force the legislature to funnel greater resources in their direction, ostensibly to oversee charter schools. The unintended long-term consequence may be a greater consensus that the NSBOE is the biggest obstacle for not only charter schools but education reform in general for the Silver State.

The inherent conflict of interest with the NSBOE overseeing charter schools is the root of the problem. They represent the highly entrenched powers within the public education system that jealously guard their territory and are willing to use any artifice available. Arizona wisely recognized this obstacle by forming the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools as a separate body from their own state board of education. We would be wise to do the same. The future of Nevada’s charter schools shall, not may, remain in jeopardy until the NSBOE is pulled off the stage and this destructive magic show of illusion is put to an end.