Legislature has moral obligation to fund repairs in state’s rural schools

In Ely, students who attend the 112-year-old White Pine Middle School navigate semitrucks driving a busy state highway just to get to the front door. Once inside, they traverse asbestos-tiled stairs, endure extreme temperatures from single-pane windows and attend classes under sagging, stained ceilings that drip dirty brown-liquid.

In Winnemucca, a burst pipe at an elementary school revealed mold, lead paint and a crumbling foundation.

And at Paradise Valley Elementary, each rainstorm brings flooding and cracks in the walls and ceiling as the water causes the building to shift.

These are not mere anecdotes; they represent a crisis in Nevada’s rural school districts, where, as the Sun’s Hillary Davis has reported, outdated infrastructure is crumbling under the weight of decades-long neglect.

The Nevada Legislature has a moral obligation to act. Lawmakers during the upcoming session must create stable and dedicated funding streams for school infrastructure. This can no longer be a patchwork of temporary measures or localized fixes. All of Nevada’s students deserve safe, functional and equitable learning environments, and achieving this will require bold, bipartisan solutions.

While there are infrastructure problems for schools throughout the state that require urgent attention, the profoundly unfair situation with the rural schools has moved well past the crisis stage.

Nevada’s funding structure for school facilities is deeply flawed. The state does not allocate specific funds for the construction or maintenance of public schools. Instead, districts rely on property taxes and bonds, mechanisms that heavily favor urban areas like Las Vegas, which benefit from economies of scale such as a larger tax base and more affordable construction costs. Rural districts, with sparse populations and limited economies, are left scrambling for scraps.

White Pine County School District is a case in point. Superintendent Adam Young dreams of providing modern facilities to match Clark County’s career and technical academies but faces an insurmountable funding gap. Even if voters increased the district’s tax base cap to the maximum allowed under state law and refinanced existing debt, they could only muster $40 million — a far cry from the $98.5 million needed to replace their decrepit middle school.

Students in some rural schools are forced to endure dangerous conditions, more than just cosmetic in nature, such as asbestos insulation, lead paint, failing heating systems, ceilings, floors on the brink of collapse and accessibility violations that isolate students with disabilities. These are barriers to learning and safety hazards that jeopardize students’ well-being.

Nevada’s Constitution guarantees a “uniform system of common schools,” but this promise rings hollow in the face of such stark inequities. Lawmakers must recognize that a modern, equitable education system requires more than operational funding. It demands a commitment to infrastructure that supports learning.

To address this urgent issue, the Legislature must act in the upcoming session to ensure reliable and sustainable sources of funding for rural school infrastructure. These actions include providing programs like the Fund to Assist Schools with Capital Improvements, which the state launched in 1999 to assist schools with emergency repairs, with a dedicated funding source. The funding should come from across the state, allowing communities of all sizes to share the burden and responsibility of responding to the need for emergency repairs that threaten student’s health and safety.

Similarly, The Nevada State Infrastructure Bank should be given the authority to provide low-interest loans and matching grants to rural school districts, helping to close the gap between local resources and the costs of essential projects. The state should also consider allowing rural districts to pledge alternative taxes as security for these loans, easing their reliance on property taxes.

Additionally, 11 Nevada counties, all rural, are at their combined property tax cap. Lawmakers must permit these districts to temporarily exceed these caps for school infrastructure projects, with voter approval. This flexibility could provide rural communities with the tools they need to invest in their schools while still respecting local taxpayers’ input.

Finally, lawmakers should revisit the distribution model for specific and identifiable funds that historically originated in rural districts, such as the “net proceeds of minerals” that come from mining operations.

While we continue to believe that the pupil-centered funding plan is the fairest way of distributing funding for everyday operational expenses, as Humboldt County School District Superintendent Dave Jensen aptly noted, the rigidity of the current formula needlessly pits operational needs against capital improvements. The benefits of economies of scale are undeniable, especially regarding large infrastructure projects. Lawmakers should tweak the pupil-centered funding formula to take those benefits and their corollary detriments into account.

The challenges facing Nevada’s rural schools are not insurmountable, but continued inaction will have dire consequences. Decaying infrastructure undermines the quality of education, jeopardizes the state’s future workforce and sends a clear message to rural students and families that their education is not a priority. Furthermore, these conditions expose the state to legal risks. Schools that fail to meet accessibility standards or maintain safe facilities are lawsuits waiting to happen. Besides, not spending on the capital improvements now isn’t really saving the state any money — it just kicks the can down the road and makes the inevitable construction even more expensive while endangering students the whole time.

Nevada has the tools to address this crisis. What’s needed now is a bipartisan effort that reflects the values of every Nevadan: fairness, opportunity and the belief that every child deserves a chance to succeed.

The upcoming legislative session will provide lawmakers with the opportunity to ensure that all students, regardless of where they live, can learn in safe and modern schools. It’s time to move beyond piecemeal fixes and implement sustainable solutions that will uplift Nevada’s schools for generations to come.