Director of Research Geoffrey Lawrence and Policy Analyst Anahit Baghshetsyan op-ed in the Reno Gazette Journal about short term rental regulations.
Director of Research Geoffrey Lawrence and Policy Analyst Anahit Baghshetsyan op-ed in the Reno Gazette Journal about short term rental regulations.
Nevada Policy’s Anahit Baghshetsyan’s informative commentary in the Las Vegas Review-Journal
The Las Vegas Review-Journal published an op-ed letter by Nevada Policy’s Policy Analyst, Anahit Baghshetsyan, about the future of film tax credits in Nevada.
Policy Analyst Anahit Baghshetsyan’s op-ed for the Las Vegas Review Journal about the New York City Mayor’s race and what it could mean for Nevada.
Read the op-ed here.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal wrote an article based on Policy Fellow Cameron Belt’s piece about a need for changing regulations in Nevada. Read the article here.
The Reno Gazette interviewed Policy Analyst Anahit Baghshetsyan about the changes to Nevada’s home insurance law. Read the full story here.
The Las Vegas Review Journal cited Nevada Policy’s research in its article about Governor Lombardo’s vetoes this legislative session.
The Review-Journal’s editorial quotes Research Analyst Anahit Baghshetsyan.
Article written based on Nevada Policy’s 200 Boards report
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LAS VEGAS — Responding to the education agenda announced today by Democratic legislators that includes ending social promotion, expanding pre-K, mandating full-day K, and changing the funding formula for K-12, NPRI Communications Director Victor Joecks released the following comments.
It’s encouraging to see legislative Democrats promising to support ending social promotion after the third grade. Through the third grade, children learn to read; thereafter, children read to learn. Social promotion of students who cannot read after the third grade effectively sentences these children to academic failure for the rest of their time in school before — demoralized — they drop out.
During the last session, Governor Brian Sandoval submitted a bill ending social promotion, which legislative Democrats, unfortunately, killed through inaction. If Democrats follow through on their promise this session and enact this effective reform, they will merit genuine applause.
Regrettably, the other proposals presented by party leaders — including both expanding pre-K and mandating full-day K — have a repeatedly documented track record of producing only minimal and temporary gains.
Joecks noted that numerous studies, including a recently released report from the federal government on the impacts of Head Start, show that full-day K and especially pre-K produce only minimal gains that evaporate by the end of the third grade. He remarked:
If the federal government can’t produce lasting gains from pre-K after spending $8 billion a year on Head Start — more than double the state’s annual budget — why do state lawmakers think a smaller pre-K program will make any lasting difference?
Pre-K and full-day K programs would not only waste taxpayer dollars, they would also distract from the highly popular and successful reform that is increasing educational achievement across the country: school choice.
Currently, 21 states and Washington, D.C., have some form of school choice, including tax-credit scholarships and Education Savings Accounts. School choice programs have raised graduation rates in D.C. and increased math and reading scores in Milwaukee and Charlotte, and the mere competition generated from school choice increased public school outcomes in Milwaukee and Florida.
Joecks also noted that 27 random-assignment studies have found that school choice increases achievement either for students who use school choice programs or for those who remain in public schools. No random assignment study has found a negative impact for either group. A well-designed school choice program, like NPRI’s Education Tax Credit plan, would also save taxpayers money, he said, concluding:
It doesn’t matter how politicians package or program it — spending more on public education hasn’t and will not increase student achievement. Instead of pumping ever-larger amounts into a broken system, lawmakers should follow the example of over 20 states and empower parents to pick the school that’s best for their child through a well-designed, universal program of school choice. Polling has also shown that’s what Nevada parents would prefer.
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LAS VEGAS — TweetNevada, a website that compiles the Twitter messages, or “tweets,” of Nevada state policymakers and helps citizens stay informed about the discussions surrounding the 2013 Nevada Legislature, was launched today with a new design.
The site, located at http://TweetNevada.com, compiles the tweets of the 51 Nevada state policymakers who currently have a Twitter account, and will include more as they are created.
Hosted by the Nevada Policy Research Institute, the site features a crisper layout and the ability to reply or retweet directly from the page.
In a separate column on the site, TweetNevada follows the hashtag #nvleg, which is used to designate tweets from citizens and journalists that relate to Nevada’s legislative activity.
“Twitter is the best way to find out what’s happening when it’s happening, and TweetNevada allows any citizen easy access to the conversation happening in Carson City,” said Victor Joecks, NPRI’s communications director.
“TweetNevada is important, because while the decisions made in Carson City affect everyone, relatively few citizens have the chance to actually go to the state capitol.
“By using the hashtag #nvleg, citizens are also able to join in the conversation and have their comments appear on TweetNevada.”
The number of elected officials on Twitter has grown substantially since TweetNevada launched in 2011. In 2011, only 32 policymakers were using Twitter compared to 51 today. Currently, 32 Democrats and 19 Republicans have a Twitter account. Twenty-eight members of the Assembly have an account, along with 19 senators and four statewide office holders.
“Too often Carson City becomes its own little world and politicians forget the concerns of the average citizen,” said Joecks. “TweetNevada allows the average citizen to follow what’s going on and, by replying to elected officials, to offer their perspective.”
While TweetNevada is hosted by NPRI, all the content on the site is generated by Twitter users.
LAS VEGAS — Responding to the Nevada Budget Department’s release of the “Agency Request Budget — Items for Special Consideration,” NPRI Deputy Policy Director Geoffrey Lawrence issued the following comments:
While it's great to see that Gov. Brian Sandoval has complied with Nevada's public-records laws by releasing the full agency-budget requests, Nevadans shouldn't place much stake in those requests’ significance.
That’s because they assume that every government agency should be given a substantial funding increase through costs — including pay increases — that automatically roll up. This outdated and broken budgeting process, commonly referred to as “baseline budgeting,” failed to exact any accountability over the use of public resources.
Fortunately, during the 2011 session, Sandoval and lawmakers took bipartisan action on an NPRI recommendation to reform the state budget process and adopted a new, priority- and performance-based approach.
This allows policymakers to identify the state's highest needs and to target the state's limited resources to the areas where those resources can have the greatest impact. Those moreimportant and credible agency budget requests had already been made public by the governor.
The requests released today are a relic of an old, dysfunctional system. Nevadans should recognize that agency requests produced through the old budget process are completely meaningless today, and these requests should be ignored.
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