HomePoliticsLAXALT OUT OF STEP WITH REPUBLICANS ON SCHOOL CHOICE? Politics LAXALT OUT OF STEP WITH REPUBLICANS ON SCHOOL CHOICE? April 5, 2018 Rob Lauer Political Reporter This morning, Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Adam Laxalt announced his “Education plan” for Nevada. And a glaring item was missing, School Choice and ESA’s. Laxalt starts out his plan with “Building on Governor Sandoval’s Accomplishments”. . After Governor Sandoval and Mike Roberson lied to the voters in 2014 when they promised not raise taxes and turned around and imposed the largest tax increase in the history of Nevada, $ 1.3 Billion, which they spent mostly on English classes for illegal alien children in our schools. Our poorly paid teachers got screwed and the kids of those who actually pay the taxes where still stuck in crappy performing schools. Senator Scott Hammond led the charge to pass Educational Savings Accounts which are a financial vehicle that allows parents to send their kids to private schools. The law was found to be constitutional by the Nevada Supreme Court in 2016 but the funding was struck down. The law has languished in purgatory since 2016 under Sandoval and Roberson’s leadership. Many Republicans pinned their hopes on Laxalt leading the effort to fully fund ESA’s this election year. . Republican base voters have heard Laxalt’s song before, played by better musicians, like Sandoval, and just are not buying it anymore. Republican voters want their kids out of public schools that care more about transgender bathrooms then about the safety and education of our kids. Our public schools have failed to protect our kids from a surge of pedophiles and continue to force liberal progressive politics down our kids’ throats. . . Hispanic voters are furious about Transgender policies in public schools and fully support ESA’s and school choice programs which allow their kids to attend private Catholic schools. Hispanic voters are prime for Republicans to earn their support this election year on the school choice issue. If Laxalt ignores the biggest issue, ESA’s, school choice, then he has already surrendered his education policy to the progressives and removed one of the biggest issues in this election motivating Republicans and Hispanics to support him. Laxalt is acting like a guy who’s already won the primary election and is moving to the political middle, ignoring the his primary Republican voters with mushy vanilla policies no one will either get excited about or criticizes. But Laxalt better wake up to the fact that he isn’t competing against Dems for votes in November but against Ryan Bundy, who is far more popular in the rurals and with Republican Primary voters then he is. Ryan Bundy has national name ID and is perceived as far more creditable on hot button issues than Laxalt. The further left Laxalt drifts, the more votes Bundy will pick up. Many Republicans, privately, are deeply concerned about Laxalt’s true postings on the issues. We’ve seen this play before with politicians pretending to be conservative and once they are in office they flip to the left. Education policy is an area where Laxalt should be standing strong for ESA’s and school choice as his primary policy objectives, yet it’s nowhere to be found in his announcement today. We got a litany of focus group tested phrases instead of real reforms from Laxalt.
