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.

A comparison between Nevada and neighboring Arizona reveals the solutions the Silver State needs to meet its most pressing challenges in education.

Increasingly, the actions of those who govern reflect the will of a small but influential group of special interests, rather than the will of the governed. One won't find a more egregious example of this than the public education system, nor a place where the consequences for education have been more disastrous than in Nevada.

Little doubt remains here in the Silver State that the education system is broken and in dire need of significant reform. The lackluster performance of the state's public school system is something Nevadans of all political persuasions recognize, as thousands of students graduate from high school each year without the basic skills needed to be successful either in college or in the work force.

It's time to bring public charter schools to the forefront of Nevada education. Battle-worn and born of hardy pioneering stock, many of Nevada's chartered public schools are emerging as successful, avant-garde educational models.

During and after the Nevada Democratic Party's divisive caucuses last week, both camps — Clinton/teacher union and Obama/Culinary union — accused the other of attempting to intimidate voters.

Significantly, however, the very caucusing system that permitted union members and others to be subjected to threats and intimidation had earlier been approved by the leadership of both unions.

There's nothing particularly new, or even all that interesting, about the kafuffle taking place over Nevada's public K-12 education budget.

The Nevada special interests that regularly plump for a "broad based business tax" always couch their advocacy in the language of good public policy.

It's interesting, therefore, that the particular tax they’ve worked hardest for - a statewide gross receipts tax - is actually one of the worst public policy choices conceivable, according to non-partisan public finance experts.

Have you ever wondered why government seems so utterly, repeatedly failure-prone when it comes to meeting the education needs of Nevada kids?

Recognition is beginning to grow across the country that end-of-course exams are a superior alternative to proficiency tests as a requirement for high school graduation.

Nevada’s Open Meeting Law was designed to generate public discourse and debate. Yet school boards have, ironically, used it instead as a means of avoiding frank discussion with the public — thus turning the law on its head.