LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – Nevada’s Republican governor is stepping up pressure on state democrats to fulfill a campaign pledge regarding school choice.
Gov. Joe Lombardo visited St. Anne Catholic School in Las Vegas on Friday to highlight the decline of funding for Opportunity Scholarships this year, which could jeopardize hundreds of children from attending private schools.
“We’ve been fighting the fight since day one and we will continue to fight the fight, as we move forward,” Lombardo said.
That fight for the governor is against democratic leadership who won’t go along with his request to use $3.3 million in federal COVID relief funds toward opportunity scholarships.
The governor’s proposal will go before the legislature’s Interim Finance Committee on Wednesday.
Starting back in 2015, the program provided low-income students with money to help them attend private schools.
It’s funded by businesses that donate money and receive a tax credit.
“I just received numbers before I walked in here today. It’s going to be approximately 700 kids that are going to suffer by the failure to fund it at its previous level,” Lombardo said.
Two of the organizations who benefited from the Opportunity Scholarships program in previous years, and could lose out, were at Friday’s rally.
“These parents, you know, they don’t have any other answers,” Minddie Lloyd of the Injured Police Officers Fund Scholarship said. “We just hope that they’re able to resolve it come next week.”
Lloyd added her organization has had to turn students away.
State Democratic leaders were in Las Vegas on Wednesday where they discussed the funding issue.
“There was never, ever, ever, ever a discussion that if we did not do something with the funding, rather than the $6.5 million that’s in law,” Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager, D-Clark County, said then. “That students would potentially lose the opportunity to stay at their schools.”
Nevada Democrats said the scholarship program took in nearly $4 million more in donations last school year, and the governor should roll over that money for this year.
Both Yeager and Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro, D-Clark County, didn’t seem on board Wednesday to add the COVID money to the program.
“Hopefully they don’t make that decision come Wednesday. It would be unfortunate for the kids, the families, and the parents on what we’re trying to achieve,” Lombardo said.
