Many Democrats see charter schools as part of the school choice movement which critics have long argued siphons away public funds that could otherwise be supporting traditional public schools.ĪB400 - signed by the governor on Monday - preserves in state law the ability of county and city governments to sponsor new public charter schools, and sets aside $14 million for funding a transportation option for students attending charter schools. In their place, a new beneficiary: charter schools, which Republicans have championed as alternative education options, especially for students who want to leave low-performing traditional public schools. Joe Lombardo speaks during a school choice roundtable in Las Vegas on Monday, May 8, 2023. A late amendment excised it, alongside a proposal for open zoning (a policy that would allow students to more easily attend schools outside their assigned zone) and a proposed “Office of School Choice” from Lombardo’s education omnibus bill, AB400. As part of a broader deal the week before to push a $2 billion K-12 funding increase across the finish line, Lombardo backed away from Opportunity Scholarships entirely. In the waning days of the session, the brinkmanship brokered compromise. On the other, Democrats pledged to sit on major bills - namely a deal for a new Las Vegas stadium for the Oakland A’s - if Lombardo did not approve the budget. On one end, Lombardo promised to veto all or part of the state budget - the first such veto since 2011 - if Democrats did not move his bills.
It came after Democratic leaders feuded for weeks with Lombardo over a raft of key gubernatorial priorities, among them a sweeping expansion of the Opportunity Scholarships program that would have fulfilled a core campaign promise - expanding school choice.īut school choice broadly and Opportunity Scholarships in particular had become a political lightning rod for legislative Democrats, who vowed not only to keep funding for the scholarships flat, but also to remove school choice from the 2023 legislative agenda altogether.Īs Lombardo’s policy bills stalled in Democrat-controlled committees, the fight spilled into threats of vetos, and ultimately the hostage-taking of key bills. So how did a proposed $32 million for charter school teachers collapse a pillar of the state budget, sending lawmakers skidding into the shortest special session in state history just a day later? Joe Lombardo ultimately brokered deals on an education budget that would boost K-12 spending by more than $2 billion, alongside a pair of hotly contested bills - one sponsored by Lombardo, the other backed by Democrats - that would overhaul the state’s “restorative justice” school discipline law. In a 120-day session fraught with partisan tension, Democrats and Republican Gov.
Hours before the Legislature was set to adjourn sine die, Democratic leaders thought they had a deal.
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