Republicans slam Sisolak over school district’s COVID ‘pause’

CARSON CITY — To gauge just how large education looms as an issue in this year’s race for governor, consider how candidates reacted Tuesday after the Clark County School District tacked two days onto the upcoming holiday weekend break for a COVID-prompted “pause.”

Citing “extreme staffing shortages” caused by surging pandemic caseloads, the district said it would cancel classes Friday and Tuesday, either side of the three-day Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, to help contain the spread. News that those days will be made up in February and April could hardly compete with the top-line “COVID closes schools again” message, and candidates wasted little time sounding off.

Gov. Steve Sisolak, seeking his second term, straddled a messaging line by acknowledging that “many parents and families will be disappointed.” But he refrained from criticism, adding that he was “committed to keeping schools open for in-person learning and keeping our students, educators and staff safe.”

The governor’s attitude on COVID-related school closings has evolved since the earliest days of the pandemic with changing treatment and prevention protocols, not to mention amid ever-rising frustration from all quarters with the pandemic’s well-documented impacts on student learning and performance.

“There is no substitute for having kids on our campuses, learning in classrooms with their teachers and peers,” Sisolak said. “And I will use every resource I have as governor of the state of Nevada to keep schools open for in-person learning.”

Republicans pounce

Several of Sisolak’s potential Republican opponents weighed in. Former U.S. Sen. Dean Heller said the “handling and management of the pandemic has been completely botched by Steve Sisolak and our schoolkids are yet again paying the price.”

The link between the governor and the school district’s decision was not clear.

Heller also threw a jab at one of his Republican opponents, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, for imposing a vaccine mandate on new police department employees that “made the crisis worse.”

Heller was outdone, however, by Las Vegas City Councilman Michele Fiore’s reaction. She pledged to take over the Clark County schools by executive order “on day one of my administration,” sidestepping the fact that the governor doesn’t have that authority.

Guy Nohra, a venture capitalist in his first bid for office, took a different tack by criticizing the governor’s response as “feckless,” rapping him for a “lack of fortitude and leadership” for not standing with parents or having a clear vision for exiting the pandemic. Sounding one of his running themes, he accused Sisolak of copying “the path of California.”

Heller, Fiore and Nohra all were present last week at the first GOP governor debate in Reno. Over two and a half hours, eight candidates on the dais mentioned “education,” “schools” or “students” some 136 times, according to a transcript. In contrast, “teacher” was mentioned just 15 times. And “safe” or “safety” came up 17 times, but never with regard to schools — only in reference to elections and crime.

Eyes on Virginia

It’s clear that all sides are taking heed of what happened in Virginia in November, where first-time GOP governor candidate Glenn Youngkin capitalized on school closure fatigue, fear-mongering over progressive curricula such as critical race theory, and education-related campaign gaffes from his veteran Democratic opponent, Terry McAuliffe, to win his race.

Given Nevada’s perennial bottom-or-close-to-it ranking on education, it’s a sure bet the topic always will rank high among campaign and voter concerns. The pandemic’s impact has only supercharged matters. Republicans want to merge dissatisfaction with struggling schools and the state’s pandemic response into a single potent argument against Sisolak’s re-election.

Judging from Sisolak’s quick response Tuesday, the governor is mindful of his potential exposure on the issue. But he isn’t making excuses or apologies for the positions he’s taken as the pandemic enters its third year.

Contact Capital Bureau reporter Bill Dentzer at bdentzer@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DentzerNews on Twitter.