KVIG Informative

Nevada’s charter school sector has nearly tripled in a decade. What it hasn’t gained along the way is a dedicated source of money to build or maintain the buildings those 70,000 students learn in.

Gov. Joe Lombardo praised Nevada’s charter school sector at a Charter School Association of Nevada event this spring, saying the state has made historic progress expanding educational choice for families while acknowledging ongoing challenges with facilities and teacher recruitment.

Public charter schools now enroll roughly 70,000 Nevada students, according to Dr. Victor Wakefield, superintendent of the Nevada Department of Education. Unlike traditional public schools, charter schools receive no dedicated funding stream for facilities and must use per-pupil operating dollars to build and maintain their buildings.

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Nevada Assembly member Selena Torres-Fawcett said the lack of dedicated facility funding remains one of the most urgent issues facing charter schools, calling it a real barrier to growth. She said schools serving more than 70,000 students receive no dedicated facility funding, meaning classroom dollars are used just to keep the doors open, leaving fewer resources for students.

The financial gap shows up directly in per-pupil spending. State charter schools authorized by the State Public Charter School Authority spend an average of $10,142 per student, compared with a statewide public-school average of $14,067, according to state enrollment and spending data.

The Nevada State Education Association has raised a broader concern about the funding structure itself, stating that charter schools by their nature draw funding from local public schools, which still enroll more than 90% of Nevada’s K-12 students.

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Charter schools are also ineligible for the dedicated transportation funding traditional public schools receive, another operating cost charters have to absorb within the same per-pupil dollars meant to cover instruction.

Every dollar a charter school spends leasing a building or covering a bus route it isn’t reimbursed for is a dollar that isn’t going toward a classroom, an elective, or a music stand. Nevada has spent a decade building charter school enrollment. It still hasn’t built the funding structure to support what that enrollment actually costs.