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Archive for month: September, 2018

You are here: Home » Updates » Political Update – March 9, 2015 » 2018 » September
September 25, 2018
25 Sep 2018

Political Update – September 25, 2018





Nevada among freest U.S. states, but work to be done on taxes, regulations

Noelle Evans
Watchdog.org
August 30, 2018

The Cato Institute recently released their “Freedom in the 50 States” report. It’s a study of how the policies of each state affect its residents and businesses. Nevadans were not surprised to learn that their state was sitting comfortably in the top ten.

In fact, the report ranked Nevada as the fifth “freest” state in the union. The ranking was unchanged from the last time the study was published in 2014. While the study particularly cited high levels of personal freedoms that residents of Nevada enjoy, the authors also recognized the above-normal land-use freedoms as well.

Holding the state back from ascending higher were a pair of fiscal-based policies.

“Nevada’s fiscal policy has worsened since 2002, a fact that might have something to do with a 2003 state Supreme Court decision setting aside part of the state constitution, which required a supermajority for tax increases,” the report says.

It also took issue with the high level of regulations in a disparate selection of industries, including epidemiology, sign language interpretation, athletic training and well drilling.

Michael Schaus, executive director of National Employee Freedom and the communications director of the Nevada Policy Research Institute, expressed similar concerns with the state's occupational licensing practice.

READ MORE HERE

 

Keystone Corporation

Quote of the week

 


Quote:

"Nevada has the sixth worst public school system in the U.S. The high school graduation rate among low-income students is 66.7 percent, the lowest in the country, meaning 1 in 3 low-income students do not graduate. The regular high school dropout rate is 26.4 percent, the third highest."

WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez

 

Nevada releases education performance data defying negative rankings

By Bethany Blankley

Watchdog.org
September 21, 2018

The Nevada Department of Public Education has released its Nevada School Performance Framework, which boasts a range of improvements across several achievement indices – in stark contrast to other reports that ranked the state's public education system poorly.

In January, Education Week’s "The Quality Counts 2018: Report And Rankings," an annual report card of how well states and the nation are educating K-12 students, gave Nevada a D grade, ranking its education system 51st in the nation.

A 2018 Education Law Center report published every two years gave Nevada an "F" grade in 2014, 2016 and 2018. A WalletHub 2018 Best and Worst Public Schools ranking lists Nevada 46th out of 50 states and the District of Columbia. In the two main categories it prioritized, the study listed Nevada 47th in “quality of education” and 36th in “school safety.”

 

READ MORE HERE

 

Keystone's Mission:

To recruit, support and advocate for candidates for public office who support private sector job creation, low taxation, a responsible regulatory environment, and effective delivery of essential state services.

Keystone's Mission:

• To focus on candidate support on state legislative races and the governor's office.
• To oppose any form of corporate income taxes or other business taxes that discourage capital investment and therefore job creation.
• Support limiting Nevada state government spending to the rate of population growth.

P.O. Box 93596 | Las Vegas, NV 89193-3596

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September 18, 2018
18 Sep 2018

Political Update – September 18, 2018





CCSD asks state Supreme Court to delete transparency law

Robert Fellner
Nevada Policy Research Institute
September 13, 2018

The Clark County School District is once again wasting tax dollars on frivolous legal battles designed to keep the public in the dark and the district immune from consequence for its repeated, willful violations of the state’s open records law.

When a government agency unlawfully denies access to a public record, the only recourse available to the requester is to petition the courts to compel the agency to disclose the record.

The Legislature in 1993 amended the law to require that government agencies pay the requester’s costs and attorney’s fees, if the court determines the agency unlawfully withheld the requested public records.

The text of the relevant statute is remarkably clear and straightforward:

If the requester prevails, the requester is entitled to recover his or her costs and reasonable attorney’s fees in the proceeding from the governmental entity whose officer has custody of the book or record. NRS 239.011(2)
This is necessary as the reverse would be absurd on its face: absent this provision, members of the public would be required to pay tens of thousands of dollars on legal fees just to force the government to comply with its own transparency law.

Yet, that scenario — which would functionally delete the state’s public records law — is precisely what CCSD is arguing for in a just-filed brief before the Nevada Supreme Court.

Specifically, CCSD claims that agencies are only required to pay the prevailing requester’s legal fees if the court finds that they withheld records in “bad faith.”

CCSD cites two factors as the basis for this frivolous argument.

First, they cite comments made by a member of the public during the legislative hearings from when NRS 239.011(2) was enacted, who stated she believed agencies would only have to pay the requester’s legal fees if they had acted in “bad faith.”

READ MORE HERE

 

Keystone Corporation

Quote of the week

 


Quote:

"The real problem isn’t CCSD’s awful legal reasoning in this particular case; it’s their continued willingness to take precious resources away from the children they are supposed to serve, just to fund endless legal efforts designed to keep them immune from transparency and accountability."

– Robert Fellner

Author

CCSD asks state Supreme Court to delete transparency law
 

 

Nation's leader in school choice dramatically outperforms peers, while spending much less.

By Robert Fellner

Nevada Policy Research Institue
September 10, 2018

Earlier this week, Education Week released their K-12 Achievement Index, updated with the most recent federal data. The score is a comprehensive assessment of student performance which factors in math and reading proficiency at both the 4th and 8th grade level, high school graduation rates and advanced placement (AP) levels and test scores.

Nevada fell two spots since the last update, from 38th to 40th.

Florida, however, catapulted from an already impressive 11th to now having the 4th highest K-12 achievement ranking in the nation!

Florida is also home to what is by far the most expansive school choice program in the nation. So while it’s obviously inappropriate to conclude that a full-throated embrace of school choice is why Florida’s schools perform so well, it would seem to throw cold water on the claims of some that school choice harms education.

(The fact that such claims are made exclusively by those who gain from and are a part of the existing monopoly public school system is also worth considering, as is the vast body of academic literature that finds school choice improves performance, civic engagement and parental satisfaction.)

 

READ MORE HERE

 

Keystone's Mission:

To recruit, support and advocate for candidates for public office who support private sector job creation, low taxation, a responsible regulatory environment, and effective delivery of essential state services.

Keystone's Mission:

• To focus on candidate support on state legislative races and the governor's office.
• To oppose any form of corporate income taxes or other business taxes that discourage capital investment and therefore job creation.
• Support limiting Nevada state government spending to the rate of population growth.

P.O. Box 93596 | Las Vegas, NV 89193-3596

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September 11, 2018
11 Sep 2018

Political Update – September 11, 2018





Despite tax hikes, most students behind in reading

Editorial
Las Vegas Review-Journal
September 8, 2018

Nevada released a slew of test score data last week, and there’s good and sobering news for Nevada students.

Start with the good. Aside from seventh-grade English, the number of students proficient in English and math increased in every grade from third through eighth.

“The improvement in both math and English language arts once again demonstrates that Nevada is on course to become the fastest-improving state in the nation,” Steve Canavero, state superintendent of public instruction, said in a statement. Canavero credited the gains to the programs and funding increases started under Gov. Brian Sandoval.

Perhaps. But this is where the sobering news comes in. The gains are positive, but they’re also incremental. The number of third-graders proficient in English increased 1.32 percentage points to 46.12 percent. Proficiency among eighth-graders went up 0.93 percentage points to 47.41 percent.

In math, there’s a troubling trend. The longer students remain in public schools, the more their proficiency declines. Third-grade math proficiency increased 0.68 percentage points to 48.25 percent, but by eighth grade proficiency is under 30 percent.

The low overall rate of proficiency in third grade provides the greatest cause for concern. Those students have participated in the programs Sandoval passed in 2015 since they were in first grade. If you want credit for the increase, you also need to explain why reading proficiency remains under 50 percent. That’s certainly not the transformation Sandoval promised when pushing the largest tax increase in Nevada history to pay for his programs.

In tests that weren’t administered by state bureaucrats, the news is even more concerning. The biennial National Assessment of Education Progress is the gold standard of measuring student achievement across the country. In 2011, it showed that 36 percent of Nevada’s fourth-graders were proficient in math. That’s fallen in every test since and now sits at 31 percent. In better news, Nevada’s fourth-grade reading scores on the NAEP have increased since 2005, growing from 21 percent proficiency to 31 percent.

It seems like any news about education will result in calls for more spending, and that’s what new Clark County School District Superintendent Jesus Jara is doing.

READ MORE HERE

 

Keystone Corporation

Quote of the week

 


Quote:

"I’m committed to working with the Legislature to increase the funding to improve our working conditions for our employees. Looking at the possibility, if we lower class size, I think CCSD will continue going forward to becoming the No. 1 district for kids."

– Jesus Jara

Clark County Superindendent
 

 

Waylan discusses if Question 6 will increase costs

By Victor Joecks
Las Vegas Review-Journal
September 6, 2018

Increasing Nevada’s Renewable Portfolio Standard with the passage of Question 6 won’t increase the cost of electricity. It’s possible, however, that ratepayers could experience an impact as new projects are brought online, but modeling predicts lower rates in the long-term. That’s according to Karen Wayland, executive director of the Clean Energy Project and a Question 6 proponent.

Nevada currently requires that 25 percent of its energy come from renewable sources by 2025. Question 6 would increase Nevada’s RPS to 50 percent by 2030.

“The price of solar electricity is plummeting and is reaching record lows in Nevada,” said Wayland while filming Nevada Politics Today. “The likelihood is that [Question 6 will] decrease our electricity prices, not increase our electricity prices.

“That’s the experience of states around the country. It’s added less than 1 percent to the price of electricity, and in some states, it’s projected to decrease rates at the end of the compliance period.”

Wayland acknowledged that there could be some financial impact as new renewable sources come online, but she believes the overall result will be helpful.

“The ratepayer will feel the impacts of bringing more renewable energy online,” she said. “But the modeling shows — and the experience of other states and in fact here in Nevada — more clean energy will actually decrease rates.”

Not having to pay for fuel is the key advantage of renewable energy, according to Wayland.

 

READ MORE HERE

 

Keystone's Mission:

To recruit, support and advocate for candidates for public office who support private sector job creation, low taxation, a responsible regulatory environment, and effective delivery of essential state services.

Keystone's Mission:

• To focus on candidate support on state legislative races and the governor's office.
• To oppose any form of corporate income taxes or other business taxes that discourage capital investment and therefore job creation.
• Support limiting Nevada state government spending to the rate of population growth.

P.O. Box 93596 | Las Vegas, NV 89193-3596

To ensure that you continue receiving email updates,

please add Info@KeystoneNevada.com to your address book or safe list.
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September 4, 2018
04 Sep 2018

Political Update – September 4, 2018





Lawsuit could finally give public answers on CCSD corruption

By Victor Joeks
Las Vegas Review-Journal
September 1, 2018

The Clark County School District loves to keep secrets. But even an agency notorious for ignoring Nevada’s public records statute can’t hide from a lawsuit.

That could be what it takes for the public to find out what the district did to help the husband of School Board President Deanna Wright.

Last month, the mom of Jayden Zelaya-Ramos sued the district and Jason Wright for Wright’s alleged assault on her son. Jason Wright is the husband of Deanna Wright and was Jayden’s fifth-grade teacher last year. Jayden claims Wright kicked him in the hand and yanked him by the collar. School police investigated the incident and found there wasn’t enough evidence to charge him, despite student testimony that backed up Jayden’s account.

The lawsuit alleges that the boy’s injuries “were caused as a direct result of CCSD having negligently hired, trained or supervised its agents and employees.”

Negligence should be easy to prove. There’s a long pattern of district officials giving Jason Wright special treatment because of his spouse. The district’s HR department didn’t originally accept him into the Alternative Routes to Licensure program. Former Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky overruled that decision, however, and ordered the department to approve Wright’s application. Nor was this the first time a student accused Wright of assault. In October 2017, one of Jayden’s classmates said Wright threw a desk, which hit her and bruised her leg.

District officials didn’t fire Wright — after either incident. They quietly moved him to another school to finish out the last school year after he kicked Jayden. The No. 2 individual in the district, Deputy Superintendent Kim Wooden, even attended Wright’s disciplinary meeting on his behalf, per a source who requested anonymity. That is unheard of — for teachers who aren’t married to the board president.

READ MORE HERE

 

Keystone Corporation

Quote of the week

 


Quote:

“The Clark County School District loves to keep secrets. But even an agency notorious for ignoring Nevada’s public records statute can’t hide from a lawsuit.”

 

Vicotr Joeks
Las Vegas Review-Journal,
Spetember 1, 2018

 

Uncivil liberals want to suppress conservative views

By Wayne Allen Root
Las Vegas Review-Journal
September 1, 2018

I have an interesting Jacky Rosen campaign story. And I’ll bet you’ll be surprised by the ending.

First, a general overview of the hatred coming from liberals. It’s outrageous, shocking and un-American. It has to stop.

I don’t like your liberal views. You don’t like my conservative views. But that doesn’t mean I hate you — the person. I’m Jewish by birth, and most of my relatives are liberal. I may dislike their views, but I love my aunts and uncles. I know how to separate the politics from the person.

But the hatred and threats by liberals toward conservatives are ruining discourse and civility in America. They want to destroy us. They want to bankrupt us. They want to sic the IRS on us. They want to ban us, censor us, stop us from even speaking on college campuses, stop us from donating to conservative causes. But those views are un-American. Don’t we have freedom of speech and choice in America?

In California, liberal activists and the Democrat Party chairman are asking for a boycott of In-N-Out Burger for the “sin” of donating $25,000 to the California GOP. So now business owners can lose their business if they simply write a check to the GOP?

Closer to home, here’s an example of the incivility.

Last Tuesday, I was working out in my home gym at 9 p.m. when my cellphone rang. The person on the other end identified himself as calling from the Jacky Rosen for U.S. Senate campaign. Boy, do you have the wrong guy, I said. I told them I was Wayne Allyn Root, the conservative talk host and RJ columnist. “It’s probably a good idea not to waste your time calling me,” I said. I thought it was funny.

READ MORE HERE

 

Keystone's Mission:

To recruit, support and advocate for candidates for public office who support private sector job creation, low taxation, a responsible regulatory environment, and effective delivery of essential state services.

Keystone's Mission:

• To focus on candidate support on state legislative races and the governor's office.
• To oppose any form of corporate income taxes or other business taxes that discourage capital investment and therefore job creation.
• Support limiting Nevada state government spending to the rate of population growth.

P.O. Box 93596 | Las Vegas, NV 89193-3596

To ensure that you continue receiving email updates,

please add Info@KeystoneNevada.com to your address book or safe list.
Click here to unsubscribe 
Having trouble viewing this e-mail? View it in your browser


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To recruit, support and advocate for candidates for public office who support private sector job creation, low taxation, a responsible regulatory environment, and effective delivery of essential state services.

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To focus on candidate support in state legislative races and the governor’s office.

To oppose any form of corporate income taxes or other business taxes that discourage capital investment and therefore job creation.

Support limiting Nevada state government spending to the rate of population growth.

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