Senate passes bill to comply with federal education mandates

Legislation that complies with federal education mandates passed the Nevada Senate on Monday despite a warning from Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, that it it requires so much paperwork, "we'll never find that child under all those reports."

Senate Bill 191, following the federal "No Child Left Behind" act, expands testing requirements throughout public school to ensure that students are learning what they are supposed to be learning.

It requires everyone from individual teachers through district administrators to collect data on how the students, individual schools, each grade and the district as a whole are doing.

It also sets standards for teachers and requires reporting on how the districts and state are meeting those.

Sen. Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said the legislation is necessary to ensure Nevada qualifies for a total of $156.6 million in federal education funding. Much of that is money the state already receives from federal grant programs.

But Neal said he recently watched a teacher explain the reports and paperwork she must fill out.

"She was filling out so many reports, she didn't have time to deal with the children," he said.

"I'm wondering how we're going to be able to find that child who's left behind when he covered up with all those reports," Neal said. "I see this whole program, well intended as it might be, as a detriment to the education of children. I don't think it going to accomplish what it was intended to accomplish."

Raggio described Neal's observations as appropriate but said Nevada's own education act already requires most of what the bill mandates. He said the state has no choice but to pass the legislation to comply with federal law.

"This is an indispensable bill," he said.

Even Neal agreed and the vote was unanimous to send SB191 to the Assembly.