DEMS VOTE TO TOSS POOR KIDS OUT OF SCHOOLS

Aug 11, 2023

LAS VEGAS, NV – Today, the Interim Finance Committee (IFC) voted against Governor Joe Lombardo’s proposal to utilize unallocated federal COVID relief funds to maintain Opportunity Scholarship funding for the 2023 school year.

The proposal was denied on a partisan vote with all Democrats in opposition. With the denial of the proposal, several hundred Nevada school children will now be kicked off of their Opportunity Scholarships and removed from their schools.

At the beginning of the 2023 Legislative Session, Governor Lombardo proposed increasing Opportunity Scholarship funding to $50 million through Assembly Bill 400, which Democrats gutted to remove the scholarship funding increase. The Office of the Governor then continued to fight for funding until the final days of the session.

IFC’s incredible hostility towards a scholarship program that supports low-income children was on full display as Democratic legislators attacked representatives of organizations that provide scholarships to these children. The legislature has directed millions upon millions of dollars to their political supporters and pet projects, yet now refuses to fund the urgent needs of low-income students in Nevada through vetted and accountable scholarship organizations.

Following the vote, Governor Joe Lombardo released the following statement:

“In an act of callous partisanship, today Democrats turned their backs on hundreds of low-income students that our traditional school system has failed or left behind, Forcibly removing hundreds of low-income students from their schools after the school year has already begun is devastating and simply incomprehensible. My administration grieves with the hundreds of students who will be crushed by Democrats removing them from their friends, teachers, and schools, and my administration remains more committed than ever to fighting for all Nevada students. Our fight continues.”

The real question is, what’s next? Perhaps setting up a non profit to generate donations to help fund vouchers for poor kids? Or a new ballot initiative to change the law?