As they turned in signatures today to put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would increase education funding, leaders of the state teachers union said today they hope to make education the top issue of this election.
The initiative, led by the Nevada State Education Association, aims to fund the state's per-pupil spending at the national average or higher.
The national average was $7,548 per student in 2001-02, according to the teachers union. Nevada's average was $5,813.
While Nevada's per-pupil spending rose $400 this year, thanks to the last legislative session, schools still do not have enough money to buy basic supplies, teachers union President Terry Hickman said.
"I think it is high time, especially in Clark County, that students actually have a textbook to take home."
Hickman said the teachers gathered about 108,000 signatures in 12 weeks.
To qualify, a petition needs the signatures of 51,337 registered voters with 10 percent of the voters in 13 of the 17 counties signing it. Election officials will verify the signatures and if the petitions qualify, they will be on the November election ballot and if approved must be ratified by the voters again in 2006.
The education petition is one of a handful expected to be filed by tomorrow, the deadline for initiative petitions.
Labor union officials planned to file a petition today that would raise the minimum wage by $1 an hour.
Officials of the group supporting a petition that would allow adults to possess one ounce of marijuana say they have enough signatures and will submit the petition Tuesday.
As of this morning, there were still several petitions circulating in the state, trying to get the required number of signatures by the deadline Tuesday. Two petitions aimed at reducing insurance rates were still in circulation.
Backers of those petitions predicted last week they would have enough signatures to make the ballot.
Also in circulation is an initiative to cap property taxes, similar to the Proposition 13 passed in California in 1978.
The fate of the property tax initiative petition, advocated by Assemblywoman Sharon Angle, R-Reno, is still up in the air.
"We're not sure," if there are enough signatures, Angle said today.
She said the group was "close" but "It's hard to tell until we get the bean counters."
An initiative petition that would require the Legislature to pass funding for education before any other appropriations, called "Education First," already has been filed.
Teachers' union officials say they need to raise the amount of money going to the state's schools.
Mary Ella Holloway, president of the Clark County Education Association, a teachers' union, said when she left the classroom as a middle school reading teacher in 2001, she usually had 35 books for up to 150 children.
"This petition will give the public and the parents in particular the opportunity to say that education is important to them," Holloway said.
Hickman said the increase in funds, which would begin in 2012, could go toward five areas: pre-kindergarten and full-day kindergarten funding, more supplies, professional development for teachers dealing with learning disabled children, attracting and retaining top-quality teachers, and class-size reduction.
Education is only one of the issues that voters are expected to have a say on this fall.
Labor union officials were planning to turn an initiative that would raise the minimum wage in Nevada to $6.15 an hour, giving a $1 an hour increase to full-time workers who receive minimum wage. Employers who provide health insurance would be allowed to pay the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour, according to the measure, pushed by the AFL-CIO and the Culinary Union,
Union officials said they had collected about 80,000 signatures
Of Nevada's 939,000 workers, 51,000 earn the minimum wage, Danny Thompson, executive director of the AFL-CIO, said. Twenty-five percent of them are single moms, he said.
"You can't live off $150 a week," he said.
Jon Summers, spokesman for the Democratic Party, which is backing the petition, said a person who is making the minimum wage earns about $10,700 a year.
"This is all about helping to provide a reasonable wage so people can actually survive," Summers said.
A higher minimum wage also would allow people on welfare to more easily move into the job market, he said.
Antonio Villaraigosa, Los Angeles City Councilman and former speaker of the California Assembly, was scheduled to attend a rally today promoting the minimum wage increase. Villaraigosa was appearing on behalf of the campaign of Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry.
Democrats released census numbers in support of the minimum wage increase that said family income has dropped $1,462 since President Bush took office.
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