Governor Joe Lombardo recently released a new proposal  to fix Nevada’s broken schools, which have gotten worse since he was elected. It’s called the Nevada Accountability in Education Act, and there’s only one thing wrong with it.

It’s guaranteed to be a complete failure.

Here’s why.

Any successful school must have 7 Foundational Conditions in place.

Governor Lombardo’s plan doesn’t address or even acknowledge ONE of them, which should surprise no one.

 Going back to the early days of his gubernatorial campaign, Lombardo has repeatedly demonstrated that the only thing he knows about education is what he’s been told by the sycophant educrats who advise him. These are the same “experts” who have been in charge of creating/maintaining Nevada’s worst-in-the-nation schools for many years. None of Lombardo’s advisors, collectively, have ever transformed one broken school.

7 Foundational Conditions

Great schools and school districts are impossible to achieve without first establishing 7 Foundational Conditions. Nevada’s public schools have virtually NONE of them.

1) High daily attendance and punctuality.

2) Campuses that are drug/alcohol free, and a voluntary drug-testing plan for keeping them that way.

3) Students who are respectful and non-violent to staff and each other, and adhere to high moral standards.

4) Zero tolerance for gang or race-based issues of any kind.

5) Students who are obedient and hard-working in their classrooms.

6)  Parents who are held accountable when their children violate the rules.

7) Administrative leadership that enforces the existing NRS laws that govern every one of these issues.

When these 7 Foundational Conditions are in place, ANY school can be a great school: regardless of how it’s funded, how much teachers are paid, whether it’s traditional or charter, what neighborhood it’s located in, or how they choose to teach students to read, write, and do math.

When these 7 Foundational Conditions are NOT in place, NONE of the non-specific considerations outlined in the Governor’s Plan will improve  anything, because the schools will not be able to enforce them. Students in these kinds of schools just continue at a functionally illiterate level, learn almost nothing, and are endangered by dysfunctional, violent,  and morally toxic school environments.

Why Didn’t Governor Lombardo’s Big Education Plan Even Mention the 7 Critically Important Points Requisite for Fixing Failed Schools? 

 That’s the question that every parent of Nevada’s  500,000 public school students, and all of our state’s 1.6 million taxpayers  should be calling, emailing, and texting to the Governor and demanding a response.

The Governor, of course, will not respond to that question, so I will.

Governor Joe Lombardo’s new Education Plan is vapid and d.o.a., simply because he lacks the moral courage to tell 4 specific and essential truths to the following groups.

Here’s the Education Plan Governor Lombardo SHOULD Have Released

• To Nevada’s 17 Public School Superintendents

You have until this September to fully and immediately start enforcing – in ALL your schools – the NRS laws regarding the 7 Foundational Conditions. If you don’t, I will use the Emergency Powers Act to replace you with  superintendents who will.

• To our 24,000 Public School Teachers

Your salaries for your career field are average or above, nationwide.

Florida funds their schools the same as Nevada, but they rank #1.

There will be NO talk of increasing your pay until you drastically improve your results, and STOP making excuses for why your students are 60-85% functionally illiterate … and getting worse. 

• To the one million Parents of Nevada’s Public School Students

They’re YOUR children, and YOU are primarily responsible for what they do.

Per NRS law:

If your children are chronically absent or tardy we’re going to file charges with the police, which will require both them and you to go to court. 

If your children bring drugs or alcohol on campus, they will be arrested, turned over to the city police, and prosecuted. 

If your children are chronically violent, disrespectful, gang-involved or refusing to do their work, they will be suspended. If the negative behavior doesn’t stop, they will be permanently placed on home study and not allowed back on our campuses.

The Governor Has Known About These 7 Foundational Conditions for Almost 3 Years.  Why Hasn’t He Demanded That the Schools Implement Them?

Here’s the puzzling thing about what I’ve written.

I’m not telling Governor Lombardo anything he hasn’t already heard and seen.

He first became aware of the 7 Foundational Conditions for fixing schools almost 3 years ago during his election campaign. Joey Gilbert had wisely adopted them as part of his gubernatorial education platform.  Lombardo and his advisors became aware of them and even asked to see a copy of the Conditions.  Later, a second request was made. And yet, the Big Education Plan Lombardo released last week is far removed from requiring the most urgently needed school changes.

I’ve personally seen the 7 Foundational Conditions transform 12 different schools in 7 school districts. It would work in Nevada, but it won’t happen until we have a fearless, courageous leader who realizes that fixing broken schools requires a proven, specific plan and strong, radical action.

The substance of the Governor’s newest Education Plan is nothing more than political tough-talk, indefinite deadlines, weak accountability, and trite education ideas built on worn-out platitudes. This type of approach to improving schools has never accomplished anything and never will. The Governor’s Education Plan will leave Nevada’s severely troubled public education system worse than it was.

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