Republican Governor of Nevada Joe Lombardo is proposing a historic expansion of school choice in accordance with his major campaign promise. Lombardo’s new bill, Assembly Bill 400, will provide more opportunities for children to opt out of the public school system to attend private or charter schools.

The bill will create a new Office of School Choice within the Nevada Department of Education. Lombardo’s overall goal is to provide parents with more power over how their children are educated.

Charter schools will be able to apply for public money to help bus children to the campuses. There will also be an expansion of opportunity scholarships.

Currently, families with a household income of less than $90,000 a year are eligible to apply for public money to attend charter schools. The new bill will expand the eligibility to families who make less than $150,000 a year. There will also be open zoning for all public schools, meaning students are not required to attend their zoned school.

The state of Nevada currently has a historic budget surplus that Governor Lombardo plans to use to fund this historic school choice expansion. Per-pupil spending will be increased by about $2,000 and will also reinstate Nevada’s “Read by Grade Three” program that holds back third graders who are not reading at the standard grade level.

School choice has traditionally been opposed by teachers' unions because it allocates taxpayers' money to help parents pay for alternative educational options, including private, charter, homeschooling, or hybrid education models. Nevada’s two largest teachers' unions have taken different positions on Governor Lombardo’s proposal.

The Clark County Education Association, which includes Las Vegas, is in favor of the governor’s school choice proposal. However, the statewide teachers union is opposed to the program, particularly the expansion of opportunity scholarships, as it believes that Lombardo is trying to implement a “voucher scheme” that will not improve the quality of education in Nevada.

If Governor Lombardo’s school choice proposal is signed into law, Nevada will join Arizona, Arkansas,  Florida, and Texas as recent states to implement transformational school choice programs. Conservative states are becoming a magnet for people who are seeking competent governance. 

This will become part of the larger trend of people moving out of states like Illinois, New York, California, Michigan, and Pennsylvania because of the incompetent liberal leadership, while conservative states like Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia,  Texas, and Nevada continue to see a boom in population growth. 

It is important for states that have conservative leadership to continue to be bold in counteracting proposals from the Biden administration. This is essential for a Federalist system of government, especially as we head into President Biden’s second term.