NCG Wins Fight to Save, Transform Fremont Middle School
Nevadans for the Common Good celebrated a positive resolution to an education issue affecting students of Fremont Middle School. When the school district released rebuilding plans that involved busing Fremont middle-schoolers to another school, courageous parents and teachers began a year of conversing with each other and identifying allies.
With the support of neighboring institutions Christ Church Episcopal and Reformation Lutheran Church, Fremont leaders persuaded the School Board to approve a "transformational new plan for Fremont": rebuilding Fremont as a K-8 school and constructing a new Global High School in the neighborhood.
Defenders Hopeful Board OKs Plan to Keep Middle-Schoolers at Fremont, Las Vegas Review Journal
'Nevadans for the Common Good' Fights to Save Fremont MS
Defenders Hopeful Board OKs Plan to Keep Middle-Schoolers at Fremont, Las Vegas Review Journal
NCG Recognized by Media for Education Organizing in Nevada
NCG leaders are additionally pressing on the Nevada state legislature to fund the weighted student funding formula.
CCSD and Fremont Middle School Start to Communicate on Potential School Closure, Downtown News
Parents Pursue Alternatives as Fremont School Faces Closure in Las Vegas, Las Vegas Review- Journal
Education Topics Will Tug Hard on Nevada Purse Strings When Legislature Convenes, Las Vegas Review Journal
Indy Explains: Southern Nevada Education Groups, Nevada Independent
NCG Continues Push for Transparency in Medicaid Privatization & Greater Focus on Teacher Shortage Crisis
At a 300-person assembly of 'Nevadans for the Common Good,' state legislators publicly supported NCG goals to address the state's teacher shortage and to ensure that a plan to privatize some medicaid services in Nevada is transparent and includes meaningful public participation.
State legislators Senator Michael Robertson and Assemblymen Paul Anderson and John Hambrick listened as Marsha Rodriguez told her story about the fragility of independence as a senior. 72 years old, Rodriguez described waiting 6 months to get into a Nevada Medicaid waiver program, the Home and Community Based Waiver, which helps pay for non-medical services that are essential for some aging seniors to continue living at home. After seven years of receiving non-medical care, she fears that privatization of Medicaid services would reduce access to those services and push her into a nursing home. NCG leader Barbara Paulsen noted that the cost of at-home services for six or seven people is about equal with the cost of covering one person in a nursing home.
When pressed by NCG leaders on whether he would ask the State Department of Health and Human Services to fold stakeholders into planning meetings, Anderson -- the chairman of the Interim Finance Committee, said yes. He also responded that he "recognize the need for these services. How they they are provided must be to the benefit of those receiving care."
Regarding the state's teacher shortage, Senate Majority Leader Michael Roberson and Senator Joyce Woodhouse committed to making the shortage crisis a top priority and working with NCG to address the issue. The organization is calling on State officials to include the teacher shortage in a special session of the legislature, as well as raising the issue with the Clark County School Board.
1,400 on Waiting List for Nevada's Independent Living Program, Las Vegas Review Journal
Potential Medicaid Privatization Affecting Elderly, Disabled Worries Advocates, Las Vegas Sun
Parents, Teachers Meet with Lawmakers to Talk Clark County Teacher Shortage, ABC News 13
Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance & 'Nevadans for the Common Good' Join Forces for $430M Business Tax Proposal
One week prior, 'Nevadans for the Common Good' met with the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance at Holy Spirit Lutheran Church in Las Vegas; both organizations voted to support the business license proposal. LVGEA cited a study it had commissioned on the impact of the business license fee proposal, which concluded that the "negligible negative impact" in Southern Nevada would be far outweighed by the benefits of improved public schools.
Business, Interfaith Groups Support Sandoval's Proposal to Pay for Education Reform, Las Vegas Sun
Sandoval, 3 Past Governors Urge Lawmakers to Pass the Tax Plan, Associated Press
Tax Day in Carson City About to Change the Debate, Las Vegas Review-Journal