I am completing my first term as a member of the Nevada State Board of Education and I would like to be re-elected to continue working to make improvements to Nevada's public K-12 educational system.
The State Board of Education plays a key role in creating Nevada Administrate Codes that implement Senate Bill 1 from the 2003 Nevada Legislature. SB 1 is Nevada's plan for implementing the No Child Left Behind Act. It must continue to be the focus for the State Board of Education. While there may be other individual goals by individual board members, NCLB, and its opportunities and consequences, must be on the minds of every member of the State Board of Education. I believe I have a vast amount of knowledge on this subject and I'd like to serve another four years to see this work through.
One of my goals as a state board member is to continue to increase awareness of the need for early childhood opportunities for all Nevada children. A recent report found in the Nevada Appeal Sept. 8 showed that attending preschool can shrink achievement gaps between poor and rich children and help students from all backgrounds enter kindergarten better prepared.
Within the past three weeks Nevada's legislators have made the call for bills that address early learning, early literacy, and longer kindergarten days. The State Board of Education also has a bill draft for 2005 to extend the kindergarten day by 30 minutes. I will continue to work hard to make the necessary changes to give our students the best possible start to their school years. This is needed if we expect our dropout rate to decline. We need to work on the "front end" of education, early opportunities, in order to have better results on the "back end," high school successes.
