CV NEWS FEED // Democrats’ 2023 legislation that cut school choice programs in Nevada is to blame for the upcoming closure of a local Catholic elementary school, the editorial board of Nevada’s largest newspaper opined.
For the last 74 years, Saint Anne Catholic School has served students in a low-income area of Las Vegas. The Archdiocese of Las Vegas announced that the school will close in May due to a significant drop in enrollment and financial difficulties.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal published on April 28 an editorial that argued: “Some of [the decline] was triggered by legislative Democrats starving Nevada’s Opportunity Scholarship program.”
In previous years, the Opportunity Scholarship program had $11.4 million allocated for students. In 2023, the Democrat-controlled Nevada Legislature blocked Gov. Joe Lombardo’s efforts to increase funding for the program, and moved to cut funding instead.
This block resulted in only $6.6 million being allocated for the program, and hundreds of students had to change schools for the 2023-2024 academic year.
“If they hadn’t done so, St. Anne may have remained open,” according to the editorial board.
Suzanne Soto, a parent whose child attends Saint Anne, told the Review-Journal, “They just keep closing all the [private schools] on the side of town where we need them. And we don’t have other private schools we can afford.”
The Review-Journal noted that Park Elementary School, the public school alternative near Saint Anne, “is a one-star school where fewer than 35 percent of students are proficient in reading. Crestwood Elementary is another one-star school. Just a quarter of students are proficient in reading.”
Many low-income students depend on school choice programs to attend private schools and receive a better education.
“If Democrats weren’t so wedded to the sputtering status quo, this might make them re-examine their opposition to school choice,” the editorial continued:
School choice is most important for low-income families because well-off families already exercise school choice. Those parents can afford private school tuition or they move to a neighborhood with high-quality schools.
Low-income families, such as those who live near St. Anne, remain stuck in failure factories. Opportunity Scholarships are a lifeline for them.
Moreover, when families can choose a school based on its academic standards, public schools and private schools alike compete by improving their education experience in order to be picked.
Not only is school choice a crucial support for low-income families, it also is necessary for improving the education system itself, the Review-Journal’s editorial board concluded.
