NPRI believes that the way to improve Nevada education is to empower parents and give them more control over the education their children receive. Nevada's monolithic educational apparatus has for too long been impervious to the free-market reforms that are a prerequisite to a quality education system. NPRI's mission on education policy is to inform Nevada's citizens, elected officials and educational leaders of the need to inject free-market principles into this area of public policy.

Chancellor Jim Rogers’ response to a recent evaluation from Regent Ron Knecht suggests a continuing confusion over an important issue: whether the chancellor works for the Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents, or whether it works for him.

While recognition is growing that greater school choice is badly needed in Nevada and across the country, the National Education Association, at its annual meeting in Philadelphia this summer, hardened its position against charter schools and school choice.

What choices are available to parents and students in Nevada who are considering the charter school option? What can you do if you don’t like the menu at the geographically mandated government educational cafeteria? Unfortunately, Nevadans have few alternatives.

Trying to be everything to everybody is a sure recipe for failure.  Yet, to maintain its education monopoly, that’s what the Nevada public school system attempts to do.

Choice for education in Nevada has long been greatly lacking. A small number of charter schools have existed, but they have been constantly and purposefully exposed and limited — for the best interests of the establishment, not the students.

Teachers often bemoan the fact that they are neither seen nor treated as true professionals. It is true that teachers are not held in nearly as high a regard in American culture as they are in many others. Having taught in Estonia, I’ve experienced the difference in treatment that teachers receive there as compared to here in the United States. In fact, students don’t refer to their teachers by name in Estonia, instead using the term “teacher” as a respectful way to address educators.

In a mad rush to jack up education spending by over a billion dollars during the 2007 Legislative Session — without any serious and badly needed education reforms involving choice or accountability — Nevada’s education establishment tripped over the rock of reality and stumbled headlong into a pronounced credibility gap.

In 1981, my five-year-old son failed kindergarten. The teacher said he was socially immature and would benefit from another year in kindergarten. As a young mother, I believed that the teacher knew best.

As Nevada’s political punditocracy spends the coming weeks reflecting on the 2007 legislative session, it’s unlikely any members will spill much ink over Senate Bill 158.

The Academy for Career Education (ACE) High School is a tuition-free, construction trades and engineering charter school for 10th- through 12th-grade students. Based in Reno, ACE offers students the opportunity to pursue an integrated academic curriculum while taking specific professional-level construction or engineering courses.