Lombardo supports push to publicly fund transportation for charter school students

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - There is a push for tax dollars to pay for transportation for charter school students in Nevada. The idea has the support of the governor.

There are certainly questions about where bus drivers would come from. CCSD has had trouble getting enough drivers to staff all its bus routes since students returned from the pandemic learning at home, still, school choice advocates are celebrating the news as a big win.

“In Nevada, we are pushing for school choice as hard as we can,” said Valeria Gurr with the American Federation for Children.

“We have never really had the opportunity to move the needle until Governor Lombardo got into office,” Gurr contended.

“I’m proposing the single largest investment in K-12 education… My budget contains $2 billion dollars in new funding for our students,” Governor Joe Lombardo said in his State of the State address last month. Lombardo wants the state to start paying for transportation for charter school students and has publicly announced his support for Senate Bill 124.

“Charter schools do not have a zip code requirement so you can take your kids to any charter schools,” Gurr explained.

The issue with that is, economically challenged families may not have access to charter schools because they may live too far away. The proposal to provide public funding for charter school transportation could change that.

“Allowing transportation will essentially help parents so they can have access to charter schools wherever we have openings,” Gurr argued.

A big problem according to some, there are not nearly enough charter schools to meet demand.

“Right now, we don’t have enough. There are long wait lists in all the charter schools, and we need to continue growing them,” Gurr asserted.

At SLAM! Academy, according to their website, Tuesday is the last day to enter their lottery to potentially be enrolled as a student next school year.

Lombardo said in a tweet he plans to use education funds from the mining tax to make the charter school transportation funding plan a reality and plans to work with the legislature to get it done.

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